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."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

What Would Obama Do?

If Bailout Plan Is Too Socialistic, Just Wait For Obama Leviathan

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, September 30, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Election '08: Have Americans been so lulled by Barack Obama's smooth talk that they don't realize his plans would expand government into a massive socialist behemoth? His is a soft-spoken, hard-left agenda.

During Friday night's debate in Mississippi, Obama disparaged what he called "this notion that the market can always solve everything and that the less regulation we have, the better off we're going to be."

But the subprime crisis Washington is dealing with is the result of three decades of the federal government pressuring banks — via the regulatory demands of the Democrats' 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which was expanded by Bill Clinton — to make tens of billions of dollars in bad loans to poor people with lousy credit ratings.

It was Democrats' regulatory and litigious assaults upon the mortgage market in pursuit of "social justice" that left our economy in its precarious position of today; indeed as an attorney, Obama himself in 1994 represented a client suing Citibank, accusing it of systematically denying mortgages to blacks.

But if the taxpayer rescue of Wall Street and Uncle Sam's taking over the banking system scares you, the broader socialism planned by the Democratic presidential nominee should leave you petrified.

Here are a few examples, with price tags provided by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation:

• Politicized financial regulation: Obama would establish a Financial Market Regulation and Oversight Commission to "end our balkanized framework of overlapping and competing regulatory agencies" and "which would meet regularly and report to the president, the president's financial working group and Congress on the state of our financial markets and the systemic risks that face them."

Translation: more centralized and heavy-handed regulatory power over businesses for Washington.

• Government-managed medicine: Even left-leaning health care experts concede that Obama's expanded coverage plan will cost $100 billion; with no real cost containment, that will mean a second wave of reform that could impose full socialized medicine on our country.

Obama declares that "governments at all levels should lead the effort to develop a national and regional strategy for public health, and align funding mechanisms to support its implementation."

His plan also presumes racial discrimination, "requiring hospitals and health plans to collect, analyze and report health care quality for disparity populations and holding them accountable for any differences found."

• Community health centers: Your local doctor may become obsolete in Obama's brave new world in which $6.7 billion will be spent over five years building "community health centers" featuring "preventive, diagnostic and other primary care services."

• Antitrust enforcement: Promising this "is how we ensure that capitalism works for consumers," a President Obama would "stop or restructure those mergers that are likely to harm consumer welfare, while quickly clearing those that do not" and "working with foreign governments to change unsound competition laws."

Behind this harmless-sounding rhetoric is the misguided belief that the government must shield companies of its choosing from their competitors' lower prices and innovative practices. Courts and government bureaucrats under Obama could be expected to use antitrust to claim the existence of imaginary monopolies and squash mergers and other business transactions.

• Required IRAs: Under Obama, "employers who do not currently offer a retirement plan will be required to automatically enroll their employees in a direct deposit IRA account."

Costing $292 billion annually, according to the NTUF's latest analysis, Obama's plans are far more than just "change"; they would transfigure American society into full-blown socialism. With little more than a month to go before this most consequential election, voters seem not to appreciate the danger.

• Dictatorial energy policy: Obama would spend $150 billion over a decade "to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids" and create other ways to force uneconomical forms of energy on the auto and oil industry.

A Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund would artificially finance the environmentalist pet projects in which private investors have little faith.

Negating the global labor market, the Illinois senator also promises to "provide specific tax assistance and loan guarantees to the domestic auto industry to ensure that new fuel-efficient cars and trucks" are built within the U.S.

• Bullying utilities: The Chicago Democrat would require that 25% of electricity consumed in the U.S. be "derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025." Unless those alternative sources get cheap fast, that likely means a big escalation in consumers' electric bills.

Obama also proposes "to 'flip' incentives to state and local utilities by ensuring companies get increased profits for improving energy efficiency, rather than higher energy consumption."

• Billions for teachers unions: Instead of school choice for parents, in which competition would improve public educations and give the poor access to private education, Obama proposes "an accountability system that supports schools to improve, rather than focuses on punishments."

His five-year, $90 billion education plan would dole out "a $200 million grant program for states and districts that want to provide additional learning time for students in need," double federal funding for afterschool programs, provide "professional development and coaching to school leaders, teachers and other school personnel," "develop multi-tiered credentialing systems that encourage principals to grow professionally," and cook up other ways to keep public school teachers on the clock longer.

Uncle Sam would also "collect evidence about how prospective teachers plan and teach in the classroom" in an Obama administration.

• Required public service: In return for the federal government paying the first $4,000 of college tuition through a tax credit — which would be tough for most American families to turn down — Obama would require recipients "to conduct 100 hours of public service a year."

• Required sick leave: Spending $1.5 billion over five years, Obama would "encourage" the states to adopt paid-leave systems that "guarantee workers seven days of paid sick leave per year."

• Thought police: In what sounds like the outdated and unconstitutional Fairness Doctrine on steroids, Obama would "encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation's spectrum."

What would the "public interest obligations" of liberal Democrats' opponents within the media end up being in an Obama administration?

• Green Corps: Barack Obama would spend $390 million over five years to fund "an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to engage disconnected and disadvantaged youth . . . to improve the energy efficiency of homes and buildings in their communities, while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment."

It's a quasi-paramilitary organization dedicated to environmentalism that promises inductees that they would be getting practical employment training for future "green jobs."

• Teaching parents parenting: The senator would spend $300 million over five years establishing "Promise Neighborhoods in cities that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement." A key feature would be "parenting schools for parents."

• Housebuilding army: the Youthbuild program would be expanded from 8,000 to 50,000 over eight years at a cost of $257 million to "construct and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income and homeless families."

• Patent reform: Obama's idea of "opening up the patent process to citizen review" would make it much tougher for businesses to challenge the government's judgment on the ownership rights of an invention, which will have a negative effect on the incentives to innovate.

• Private parklands regulation: Obama would "do more to encourage private citizens to protect the open spaces and forests they own and the endangered species that live there . . . and encourage communities to enhance local greenspace, wildlife and conservation areas."

The Obama campaign uses the word "encourage" over and over in numerous areas of policy. Expect it to be the form of encouragement practiced by Don Corleone — making you an offer you can't refuse.

• Autism czar: If you weren't convinced that the Democratic nominee intends to use the federal government's powers to solve every known problem, consider his promise to spend $2.5 billion over four years on appointment of an "Autism Czar" to "ensure that all federal funds are being spent in a manner that prioritizes results."

106 comments:

  1. Don't believe the part about loss of free speech.

    Michael Barone The coming liberal thugocravy.

    http://tinyurl.com/543vpy

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  2. nancye

    http://regimentalrogue.com/papers/egg.htm

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  3. Habu, you really need to get some help.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Obama has dominated the political conversation, everywhere.

    There are mo pro-McCain threads, just anti-Obama
    There are no pro-McCain votes,
    just anti-Obama

    All votes, for any candidate, they are really either for or against Obama

    Because Obama is the man of the day
    He controls the conversation

    A candidate whom John McCain thinks of as a fair and decent man.

    Obama Derangement Syndrome.

    The symptoms are spreading.

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  6. George Will does not get to ask the questions, Bob Schieffer of Westinghouse Broadcasting does.

    Doubt if he'll ask George's questions.

    Mickey Mouse fired George Will, or did he just move on, maybe he is still there, as I do not watch any Mickey Mouse tv or Westinghouse's, much, for that matter.

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  7. Obama Derangement Syndrome.

    The symptoms are spreading.

    Tue Oct 14, 07:45:00 AM EDT

    John Cole put the following to his readers:

    Have we surpassed Peak Wingnut?
    When did it happen?
    What event most clearly demonstrates we have passed Peak Wingnut?
    Or is this premise completely flawed, and wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency?

    Discuss.









    Guess which one Cole settles on.

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  8. Last night Kingfish DR took a really cheap shot, out of the blue, at Mat, Most of us know English is not Mats first language, I believe it is Russian, and that his US history is naturally no where Mr. cool DR ‘s is, but a cheap shot is a cheap shot..

    DR said to Mat, “Your knowledge of US history and law is so shallow it is comical”


    Mat ‘s response was , a gentlemanly. “Was that necessary?”

    Of course it wasn’t, It was simply a cheap, low rent shot from DR “cool daddy” , I can put down a none native American and feel good type thing.

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  9. wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency

    Would be my guess.

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  10. OF course Obama is doing the right thing! Think of the children!

    /sarcasm

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  11. Mickey!

    I remember when a guy here wrote in King George the Third.

    Seems almost prophetic.

    Michael Savage is threatening a new political party. Borders, language, culture.

    If McCain had incorporated those concepts in his campaign he might be getting somewhere. As it is, he is losing the illegal alien vote.

    This premise is completely flawed, and wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency.

    Not only renewable, but growing. Watch it grow when the college for everybody deal takes off.(Actually we have college for everybody that really want to do, now) Taught by a new generation of brave teachers made up of recently graduated everybodies.

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  12. San Francisco Mayor Newsome, the guy who screwed his campaign manager's wife without asking, yesterday forced a class of first graders to attend gay weddings.

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  13. I don't think he forced them, he just showed his pretty face w/them, right?

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  14. He being the guy responsible for the death of an innocent family via his sanctuary city policy.
    ...and many more, of course.

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  15. What would Obama do?

    Raise Parking Taxes

    Well, the market sentiment seems to have turned up. John Bird and John Fortune were ready to jump out of the window one day, and now with the new market sentiment, it is buy, buy, buy. With the new bailout money the fanangled.

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  16. We know that Obama did read the proposals. Annenberg documents show him commenting on proposal quality. And especially after 1995, when concerns over self-dealing and conflicts of interest forced the Ayers-headed “Collaborative” to distance itself from monetary issues, all funding decisions fell to Obama and the board. Significantly, there was dissent within the board. One business leader and experienced grant-smith characterized the quality of most Annenberg proposals as “awful.” (See “The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: The First Three Years,” p. 19.) Yet Obama and his very small and divided board kept the money flowing to ideologically extremist groups like the South Shore African Village Collaborative, instead of organizations focused on traditional educational achievement.

    As if the content of SSAVC documents wasn’t warning enough, their proposals consistently misspelled “rites of passage” as “rights of passage,” hardly an encouraging sign from a group meant to improve children’s reading skills. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge’s own evaluators acknowledged that Annenberg-aided schools showed no improvement in achievement scores. Evaluators attributed that failure, in part, to the fact that many of Annenberg’s “external partners” had little educational expertise. A group that puts its efforts into Kwanzaa celebrations and half-baked history certainly fits that bill, and goes a long way toward explaining how Ayers and Obama managed to waste upwards of $150 million without improving student achievement.

    However he may seek to deny it, all evidence points to the fact that, from his position as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Barack Obama knowingly and persistently funded an educational project that shared the extremist and anti-American philosophy of Jeremiah Wright. The Wright affair was no fluke. It’s time for McCain to say so.

    — Stanley Kurtz

    The Chicago Annenberg Challenge: The First Three Years

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  17. Forced is the wrong word, indeed. Kids where just surrounded by a group a adults and herded off to the ceremonies, is all.

    San Francisco is now, or in the process of, ordering the police to not enforce the prostitution laws. Which is great if you like kids.

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  18. Having lived through Clinton Derangement Syndrome and Bush Derangement Syndrome, I say: Sit back and savor the spectacle.

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  19. The only possible happy lining I can see in any of this is Obama going way too fast, and provoking a hearty reaction.

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  20. Best not to address facts, hey, Trish?
    Best to cast aspersions on those concerned and disturbed by the facts.
    Sad.

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  21. • Bullying utilities: The Chicago Democrat would require that 25% of electricity consumed in the U.S. be "derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025." Unless those alternative sources get cheap fast, that likely means a big escalation in consumers' electric bills.

    Obama also proposes "to 'flip' incentives to state and local utilities by ensuring companies get increased profits for improving energy efficiency, rather than higher energy consumption."
    ==

    Hmmm,..

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  22. Zogby: Statistical dead heat

    Other polls are bogus in an attempt to demoralize Republican voters. Don't buy into the Muslim, Wright,Farrakhan.Pfleger,Obama hate whitey shadow puppet show the MSM is trying to hide..the Obama agenda is totally rascist and socialist......GET OUT THE VOTE , we'll tie 'em up in court on voter fraud and unmask Obama as ineligible.

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  23. Aaaaaaabsolutely, Rat.

    Was that a written deep throat. I think it was. Feel the love.

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  24. Best not to address facts, hey, Trish?
    Best to cast aspersions on those concerned and disturbed by the facts.
    Sad.

    They're lining up for some of that

    Aaaaaaab solutoogh you do so well

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  25. Best to have your kids bend over and take it in the ass, and remain "cool," than act like adults addressing the situation as it is.

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  26. I will say this, Doug: The State Department, the CIA, and engulfing dhimmitude will be yesterday's rightwing conspiratorial concerns. Unless we can figure out a way (without, to borrow a phrase, too much lurching incoherence) to roll them into new urgencies such as the Marxist insurgency about to get underway.

    That *could* be someone's homework assignment.

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  27. Tired of using your hand? Just go down to Kalakaua, they'll fix you up.

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  28. So why not contribute to the dialog instead of making fun, 3rd grade style?

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  29. Maybe figuring out a way would be to pass on information, instead of joining 'Rat's Sophmoric declarations from on high?

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  30. IOW,
    Kurtz is doing the work, it deserves being broadcast, in spite of the MSM Blackout.

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  31. Be nice if Clarence Thomas was the deciding vote declaring Obama ineligible.

    One can hope.

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  32. ...answered you before you asked the question, but that's ok.

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  33. I'll tell you what. You "dialog" with von richtofen, there. I'm going to watch the news.

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  34. Gateway Pundit is also uncovering worthwhile facts that need a hearing in our blacked out brave new World.

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  35. You should have a few hours with him, at least, before his next workout.

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  36. Yeah, watch big brother, that should help.

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  37. Yeah,

    Doug, Habu, Bobal, and Mats will get together here, as usual, and have a powwow coming up with a solution for all that ails US.

    On second thought why bother? We all know what the result will be - Nuke the Iranians and disappear Obama some way, anyway.

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  38. What I'm watching here is operation false flag by Habu. Otherwise known as a spam attack.

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  39. Teaching Racism and hatred of the USA is fine by you, right Ashie?

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  40. Don't you have somewhere else to *yawn*, Ashley? What the fsck brings you here all the time? Go away, and take Habu with you.

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  41. Do you harbor any curiosity at all beyond your own prejudices?

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  42. starling hunter said...
    This is a travesty, really. Who can justify such a thing...

    Oh wait Maybe it's the Dallas Independent School District!http://www.dallasisd.org/keynote.htm

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  43. Community leader, perhaps even a father.

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  44. You guys know Habu works alone.

    It's Nancy, Kingfish and the ant colony that scurry around defending their ant pile.

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  45. Looks like a dead heat and we haven't even got a comment out of Doug except something he must know about.

    Doug? Doug?

    Want to talk issues?

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  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  47. Obama's verbal slip fuels his critics

    ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Sen. Barack Obama's foes seized Sunday upon a brief slip of the tongue, when the Democratic presidential nominee was outlining his Christianity but accidentally said, "my Muslim faith."
    The three words -- immediately corrected -- were during an exchange with ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week," when he was trying to criticize the quiet smear campaign suggesting he is a Muslim.
    But illustrating the difficulty of preventing false rumors about his faith from spreading, anti-Obama groups within one hour of the interview had sliced it out of context and were sending it around via email. They also were blogging about it.
    Mr. Obama, who is a Christian and often proudly speaks about how his faith has influenced his public service, said he finds it "deeply offensive" that there are efforts "coming out of the Republican camp to suggest that perhaps I'm not who I say I am when it comes to my faith."
    The exchange came after Mr. Obama said that Republicans are attempting to scare voters by suggesting he is not Christian, which McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said was "cynical."
    Asked about it on ABC, Mr. Obama said, "These guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand."
    "The McCain campaign has never suggested you have Muslim connections," said Mr. Stephanopoulos, who repeatedly interrupted Mr. Obama during the interview.
    "I don't think that when you look at what is being promulgated on Fox News, let's say, and Republican commentators who are closely allied to these folks," Mr Obama responded, and Mr. Stephanopoulos interrupted: "But John McCain said that's wrong."
    Mr. Obama noted that when Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin "was forced" to talk about her pregnant 17-year-old daughter, he issued a forceful statement to reporters that the line of inquiry was "off limits." But he said the McCain campaign tried to tie him to "liberal blogs that support Obama" and are "attacking Governor Palin."
    """"""""""""""""

    Obama was never challenged on this even though both Freud and Jung agree that "slips of the tongue" are not simple errors of speech but reveal hidden parts of our psyche..the press gave Obama another free ride...

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  48. JOE BIDEN

    The Biden Error/Lie/Hallucination List (UPDATED to 22)
    Below, you’ll find a list of 14 “lies” Biden told last night, distributed by the McCain campaign. I’d just note two observations: first, when you tell stories of things that didn’t happen with the frequency of Joe Biden, coupled with his fervent belief of these untrue and inaccurate statements, I don’t think “lie” is the appropriate term. “Hallucinations” seems more accurate, I think. Second, they missed a bunch, so Biden’s list of li- er, hallucinations is well beyond 14.
    THE CONSTITUTION: Biden: "Vice President Cheney's been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. He has — he has — the idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the executive — he works in the executive branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."
    As noted by the McCain Camp, Article I of the Constitution does not, in fact, define the role of the Vice President of the United States. It defines the role of the legislative branch, otherwise known as the branch in which Joe Biden has served for the last 36 years.
    [A reader writes in noting that Article I does mention the veep at one point — "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided." However, by describing the veep's role in the legislature, it doesn't really help Biden's claim that it "defines the role, that's the executive, he works in the executive branch."]
    IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN SPENDING: Biden said that the U.S. spends more in Iraq in one month than it has in Afghanistan in six or seven years.
    That figure is off by 2000 percent.
    ‘KICKED HEZBOLLAH OUT OF LEBANON’: Biden: When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said, and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it.”
    Reuters thinks he meant to refer to Syria, but I still don't think it would be accurate to say the U.S. kicked Syria out of Lebanon. The Lebanese kicked Syria out of Lebanon.
    VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: Biden's statement that McCain voted against the Violence Against Women Act is accurate. But as Robert Byers notes, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Morrison, the Court ruled that much of Biden's law was an unconstitutional power grab by Congress of rights reserved to the states. Nobody voted against the WAWA because they support violence against women; they objected over constiutional concerns that a Supreme Court majority validated.
    The McCain camp's list fourteen lies/hallucinations can be found here.
    UPDATE: As I suspected, there are others.
    RESTAURANT: "Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's Restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."
    According to this Delaware site, Katie's Restaurant is no longer in business; locals remember it on Union Street 25 to 30 years ago.
    ARMS CONTROL TREATY: Biden: "Number two, with regard to arms control and weapons, nuclear weapons require a nuclear arms control regime. John McCain voted against a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that every Republican has supported."
    I have no idea where Biden gets this "every Republican has supported" claim, as 49 other Republican senators voted 'no' with McCain.
    When the roll was finally called on October 13, the resolution to ratify the CTBT (including the six safeguards that Daschle had submitted as an amendment) was defeated by a 51-48 vote with one abstention. (See the voting record.) Forty-four Democrats voted for ratification as did four Republicans: John Chafee (R-RI), James Jeffords (R-VT), Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Arlen Specter (R-PA). Fifty Republican senators and one independent (Robert Smith of New Hampshire) voted against ratification, and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) voted "present." The treaty fell 19 votes short of achieving the necessary two-thirds majority necessary for ratification.
    WEST BANK ELECTIONS: Biden: President Bush insisted on elections in the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, 'Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them.'"
    The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler notes that "Obama had been a senator for only a few days when the election took place, but if he made such statements, they did not appear in news reports or transcripts that are contained in the Nexis or Factiva databases."
    PAKISTANI WEAPONS: "Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan already has deployed nuclear weapons. Pakistan's weapons can already hit Israel and the Mediterranean."
    I won't quite chalk this up as a lie/hallucination, but Biden is on shaky ground here. (See below.) The distance between Israel and Pakistan is 2,085 miles, or 3355 kilometers. The longest-range existing strategic missile in the Pakistani arsenal has a range of 3000 kilometers, but it might have longer range with a lighter payload. (But how much can you lighten a nuclear payload?) They are working on developing longer-range missiles; maybe Biden knows of some development that public sources do not yet know about. Theoretically, the Pakistanis could put the weapon on a boat and then sail it to the target, but by that standard, any site on a coast in the world is within their range.
    ANOTHER UPDATE: This site indicates that the top range of Pakistani missile that can carry a nuclear warhead is 1000 miles. By being off by 1,000 or so, I'm now upgrading this to full lie/error/hallucination status.
    10/03 10:14 AM

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  49. Would you look, all those ruff tuff cream puffs ran away and hid when they couldn't answer the questions.

    Deuce, sorry to have scared away the alpha ant and his coterie of synchophants but it doesn't surprise me.

    Well Ill allow then a breather although I'm surein those immortal words
    " DEUCE I'M OUT OF HERE, I MEAN IT"

    boy did he scamper away. Personallu I truly hope they're not sitting somewhere seething over my posts. But I bet you've received back channel input demanding I be thrown off or otherwise muzzled...good for you for resisting if you have.

    Do you think Doug would send that quote out to his mother?

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  50. Just a few more items to explore on Muslim Barry.


    1. During Senator Tom Harkin's 30th annual steak fry on September 16, 2007 in Indianola, Iowa, Senator Barack Hussein Obama
    violated the U.S. Flag Code by refusing to place his hand over his heart or show allegiance to the United States of America.
    2. Senator Obama's full legal name, according to U.S. public records, is the Muslim name of Baracka Hussein Obama, Jr.
    3. Barack Hussein Obama refuses to wear the American Flag lapel pin. In the October 4, 2007 interview with ABC News, Barack
    Hussein Obama explained that "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest." Click here for the ABC News article and interview.
    4. While in Indonesia, Barack Hussein Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisi, where documents clearly indicate he
    was enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his father and stepfather. Click here for the January 2007 article from MSNBC .
    11. Barack Hussein Obama has ties to Tony Rezko, a Syrian Muslim from Chicago who was indicted by the FBI for campaign finance
    violations and found guilty on 16 of 24 charges, including fraud and money laundering. Part of the relationship, as revealed by the
    Chicago Sun Times, involved Obama paying $300,000 less than the asking price for a doctor's home, while Rezko's wife paid the
    doctor full price for the vacant real estate parcel next door. Click here for the April 2007 article. Obama refuses to talk on this.
    5. Barack Hussein Obama was born to a black Muslim father (Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.) from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and a white
    Atheist mother from Wichita, Kansas. At the age of two, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. deserted the family. His white Atheist mother
    then sought out a second Muslim for marriage, Lolo Soetoro. The family then moved to Indonesia where Obama studied Islam.
    7. The Koran (Qur'an) calls for any male who commits Apostasy (the rejection of Islam in word or deed by a person who has been a
    Muslim) to be punishable by death. All major schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that a sane male apostate must be executed.
    10. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% black (born to a black Muslim father) and 50% white (born to a white Atheist mother).
    8. Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as a Senator on January 4, 2005 and acquired less than 3 years experience prior to
    announcing his candidacy for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. He holds the least experience of all competing candidates.
    9. In his January 2007 book, Dreams from My Father, Barack Hussein Obama describes his years at Occidental College in Los
    Angeles, and his struggle with his own racial identity. Obama admits to years of drug use, including cocaine, in the book.






    Baracka Hussein Obama, Jr. has the least experience of all the presidential candidates. He occupied a seat in the Illinois
    legislature for 8 years, where he claims he did not keep any records. Obama has missed over 290 votes ( 45.5 % ) in the
    current congress, making his voting record the worst of all Democrats. He has just three years of experience in the U.S.
    Senate. On foreign policy, Obama claims that living in the largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, makes him experienced in
    foreign policy. On national defense, Obama stated that he will never use nuclear weapons, under any circumstance.
    Barack Hussein Obama was born in either Hawaii or Kenya, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from
    Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University
    of Hawaii. When Hussein Jr. was two years old, his biological father abondoned the family. His father returned to Kenya.
    His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to
    Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation. Obama attended the Muslim school in Jakarta, the Fransiskus Assisi
    school, where school documents clearly show his registration of religion being Muslim, the religion of this father.

    Barack Hussein Obama later returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. He was enrolled in the fifth grade
    at Punahou School, a college preparatory school in Honolulu, graduating in 1979. After high school, Obama studied for
    two years at Occidental College in California and then transferred to Columbia College in New York City and majored in
    political science. After receiving his Bachelors of Arts degree in 1983, Barack Obama worked for one year and obtained
    his JD degree in 1991. He worked for Miner, Barnhill & Galland in Chicago and entered the U.S. Senate in 2005.
    Would it be wise to have a Muslim president during a time when the United States is at war against Islamic radicals and terrorism?

    Should the U.S. elect a president who defied the U.S. Flag Code and refused to show allegiance to the United States of America?

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  51. Baraka may refer to:

    baraka, also berakhah, in Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony
    baraka, also barakah, in Islam and Arab-influenced languages, meaning spiritual wisdom and blessing transmitted from God

    or

    Buraq the creature which took muhammed to Jerusalem

    “I was brought by the Buraq, which is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place its hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision.”

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  52. I thought this tidbit of news interesting today:

    Iraq Invites New Foreign Oil Bids, Seeking Funds to Double Production

    "Mr. Shahristani said the ministry had decided it could no longer wait for parliament to act. "We've spent over a year waiting for the hydrocarbon law to be passed," he said. "We don't think the country can really afford any more debates."

    The contracts could be approved even if the law weren't adopted, he said, since they require only cabinet approval."

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122393366137030159.html

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  53. Barack on papa's side seems descended fro the Luo

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  54. Election Day up there in Canada today, Ash?

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  55. Bob,

    Barak (m) means lightening

    Braha (f) means blessing
    Baruh (m) means he who is blessed
    Bruha (f) means she who is blessed

    No connection between barak and braha.

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  56. I stand corrected, Mat.

    Fight Breaks Out At Nursing Home When Elderly Republican Accuses Elderly Democrat Of Cheating


    I think McCain ought to ask Obama tonight about this birth certificate and birth place issue.

    And, if he is elected will he have his Attorney General crack down on ACORN that's getting him elected.

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  57. This is worse than a friggin' divorce. I've lost half my net worth and still have my wife.

    Mike Cuccurillo at Lehman/Barclays

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  58. Electing Barack will gain us respect around the world, like in the Jimmy Carter days!

    And we need war crimes trials, Bush in the dock!

    And, we need to flagellate ourselves!

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  59. Barak (m) means lightening

    Braha (f) means blessing
    Baruh (m) means he who is blessed



    Mat,

    Brahas to you Baruh, may they descend on you as swiftly as Barak.

    Bob :)

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  60. :)

    Bob, speaking fluent Hebrew, you iz now a full fledged Israelite. All that's left is a little matter of circumcision. :D

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  61. Deuce, please remove my name from the Directors List.

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  62. John Maverick McCain being introduced at an ACORN voter registration and immigration rally, in 2006.

    Sen. John McCain was happy to accept the honors and acclamation of the Service Employees International Union, People for the American Way, UNITE HERE -- and ACORN. Here he is, on Feb. 20, 2006, telling immigration rights activists at a rally in Miami that they "are what makes America special." ACORN co-sponsored the rally, and its volunteers surround McCain, and while there's no evidence that McCain ever formally teamed with the group, the video serves as a reminder that he did not mind being associated with them when the politics of the moment were different.

    Looks like the pot is callng the kettle black

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  63. Rufus,

    Don't let that spam bot get to you.

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  64. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  65. I removed the obvious trash. I have left up what is arguably worthy comment. When I have time I will remove other trash.

    Habu, stop it.

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  66. Mat, actually I already am!@ :)

    -----

    Yeah, Rufus, ignore it.

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  67. Thank you, Deuce. We have all lived, I'm sure, too long, and too honorable lives to be drawn into an atmosphere of hatred, and race-baiting at this point.

    Ugliness will spread if it's not erased, immediately. I've had enough "Ugliness" in my life, as I'm sure you and the others have, also.

    We can allow this blog to become, as Maggies Farm put it, "Habus Vomitorium," or we can concentrate on the interesting, and "challenging" issues of the day.

    BTW, I'm going to pledge to do MY part. I'm going to make every attempt to rein in my language when discussing John ********* McCain. Jeez, that was Hard. :)

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  68. ACORN co-sponsored the rally, and its volunteers surround McCain, and while there's no evidence that McCain ever formally teamed with the group....

    Which is more like the pot calling the demi tea cup black.

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  69. New MacBook is out. Looks awesome:

    http://www.apple.com/macbook/

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  70. Pricing on the new MacBooks is a definite disappointment. Looks like the best value for an Apple computer is still the iPod touch.

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  71. How 'bout some commentary on the racism, corruption, and ugliness that characterizes the Obama Machine, Rufus?

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  72. Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin suggested Tuesday that Barack Obama shares responsibility for recent reports of voter fraud conducted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

    “Obama has a responsibility to rein in ACORN,” Palin said during an interview

    The Obama campaign has condemned the reports of voter registration fraud but has called the charges leveled by the McCain campaign “completely transparent and false.”


    One gets tired of all of the canned responses in a campaign.

    Even I could write 'em, though I might have said "completely, transparently and utterly false."

    I think I'd die of shock if I heard a response like

    "Yeah, we do it, we're in it for the power"

    or "Yup, whatcha gonna do about it"

    Something along those lines.

    or, with Ayers

    "Just neighborhood friends? Hell no, we were and still are thick as thieves. He even helped write my book"

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  73. 'Rat only follows the MSM line, LaBob, a blackout on any negative news on the Dems.
    Why, is beyond me.

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  74. the racism, corruption, and ugliness that characterizes the Obama Machine

    " those charges are completely, transparently and utterly false."

    or

    "Afro-centric? Hell, we hate the white man"

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  75. The Dhimmitude displayed by many on the right is frightening.
    Buckley's voting for Obama, I think.
    Bill spins in his Grave.
    Kristol and that other Dork at the New York Times, complete sell-outs.

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  76. We're going to have "tax cuts" for those that don't pay taxes, and send them a check in the mail.

    Astonishing use of language. Tax cuts for the untaxed. Via a check in the mail.

    Why not say, we think some folks need some help, or, we're trying to buy votes...

    We're going to have something like 1.3 trillion in new spending, and hardly anyone's going to have to pay for it!

    Obamanomics.

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  77. Really surprising about Buckley's son. Quess it's true. The acorn has fallen far from the tree.

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  78. Canoneer said,

    Old Blue,
    Americans don’t suck at IO. We have some of the best CNO in the world. They just don’t work for our military or intelligence apparat. Our EW is pretty good. Our OPSEC needs work. We are scared to use much MILDEC for fear of being accused of lying to the American people when we deceive the enemy.
    We suck at PSYOP. That’s because domestic oppositional elements within our own polity have convinced most Americans that PSYOP is bad, all propaganda for us is evil, and all propaganda for the enemy is freedom of speech.
    ---
    Same for political speech @home, even on some "conservative" blogs.

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  79. In other news, Travolta film 'catches fire' in Paris.

    PARIS (AP) - Officials say that a John Travolta movie has suspended filming in one of the Paris area's toughest housing projects after 10 cars to be used in the movie were burned.
    Filming of some scenes of the action movie "From Paris With Love" was supposed to start this week but local officials and the production company say it was put on hold because the cars were burned by unknown suspects early Monday.

    Cars are regularly burned in French housing projects, most famously during rioting that raged for three weeks in 2005 in poor neighborhoods across the country.

    The mayor's office of Montfermeil, where the housing project is located, says 90 residents were to serve as extras.

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  80. Trish would be proud. She couldn't do better with the acronyms herself.

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  81. What would Obama do?


    Sell Out Israel For Starters

    says the Reverend "Hymie Town" "Cut His Balls Off" Jesse Jackson, who is now sucking up to the Big O.

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  82. Thanks goodness all those hooligans left. Especially that one, yeah you know. OK clean start with some Obama learing.

    Those of you prone to running away or threatening to be "Out of here" hang in there. We're usually only talking about simple small ideas like a new president and a global financial meltdown.

    Doug , any words of wisdon we can repeat in public with fear of arrest? Good I did get the whole thing in my files, it's a hoot.

    OK Obama. Ok this side say "Bad man" and the other side say "is not" then we come back with "is so" then "Is not" and so on until the music stops or our sensitive guy IS OUTTA HERE, and of course means it.

    Oh, darn , news time.

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  83. I do not harp upon the Democrats, doug, because they are the "other".

    Not my tribe, so I expect the worse from them. Not ever disappointed, either.

    It is the hyprocrisy of the Republicans that has done got to me.

    Mrs Gramm's $1.2 million from Enron
    Mrs McCain's $250,000 from Chuck Keating
    Senator Stephens's rebuilt home
    The exSpeaker Hasstert's freeway exit ...
    and Mark Foley, first and foremost. That cover-up was one of those last straws.

    I was never into politics for VIP seats or personal ego trips, but for an ideology that could and should have been integrated into actual governance. Not only has that not been the case, the Republicans gone charted the wrong course in "our" name.

    That, doug, the betrayal of trust, that ranks one much higher on the shit list than merely doing what's always expected of you.

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  84. That there were voter registration cards filed that were bogus, I have no doubt.

    It was so conspicuous that 2,500 in one area were IDENTICAL.

    No one would notice.

    So who was scamming who, ACORN the System or a piece work autograph seeker scamming ACORN.

    In NV, ACORN had turned the officals onto the bogus registrations, first.

    They had supplied all the requested data to prosecuters.

    Then the office was raided, to create a talking point.

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  85. The real story of voter fraud, from the US Justice Department.

    Voter fraud is actually less likely to occur than lightning striking a person, according to data compiled by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. As Lorraine Minnite, a Columbia University professor, observed in the Project Vote report, The Politics of Voter Fraud, "The claim that voter fraud threatens the integrity of American elections is itself a fraud." In October 2002, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft launched an intensive "Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative" that required all U.S. attorney offices to coordinate with local officials in combating voter fraud. Yet even after the Justice Department declared the war against voter fraud a "high priority," only 24 people were convicted of illegal voting in federal elections between 2002 and 2005 -- and nobody was even charged by Justice with impersonating another voter. (The Justice Department declined to answer questions about more recent fraud prosecutions.) And despite the anti-immigrant frenzy fueling photo-ID laws, only 14 noncitizens were convicted of illegally voting in federal elections from 2002 through 2005 -- mostly because of their ignorance of election law.

    Unfortunately, the public hasn't heard just how nonexistent the voter fraud epidemic actually is.

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  86. A lot like those 5 million homes financed by illegals, that turned out to really be 58, instead.

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  87. Bob,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqfunyCeU5g

    Shift Happens

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  88. The real story of voter fraud, from the US Justice Department.

    Voter fraud is actually less likely to occur than lightning striking a person"

    You have got to be shitting me.

    In Philadelphia, the City, controlled by the Democrats, does not even identify how many Minority Party Inspector positions are vacant in 1,681 election precincts.

    In 1,034, 61.5% of election precincts there are NO Republican committee persons at all.

    There is no GOP presence whatsoever in 13% of the City’s 66 wards (which usually comprises from 25 to 50 precincts). Philadelphia steals one election after another in Pennsylvania.

    I doubt Philadelphia is an exception and as far as the lightning metaphor please spare us such nonsense

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  89. The real story of voter fraud, from the US Justice Department.


    according to data compiled by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

    US Justice becomes Brennan Center for Justice.

    I imagine a lot just goes under the radar of the Justice Department. Their resources are anything but unlimited.

    I had one simple case with uncle sam, an insurance claim. It took over a year and there was some actual money involved, of uncle sams(I had bought crop insurance, availble then through USDA).

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  90. So if it is so blatent in PA, why did the Federals, under AG Ashcroft, not move forward?

    Or maybe lightning strikes are more prevalent then commonly thought.

    In any case the number of prosecutions were statistically nonexistent, for such an allegedly blatent behaviour in such a vital civic duty.

    Why has no one ever filed a Federal Civil Rights complaint?

    Or have they?

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  91. Well anyway, if ACORN is such a bunch of good guys, John McCain shouldn't be criticized for a little association with them, as he was recently.

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  92. Block captains, in Philadelphia, are given what is referred to as "walking around money." City union workers, labor unions, teachers unions pick people up from their homes and pay them to go to the polling area. they take them into the booth to instruct them on how to use the machine.

    The courts, judges and district attorneys are all Democrats and they will harass any Republican that shows up at a polling area.

    If the street captains are slow and get the voters to the polls late, a Philadelphia judge will order the overwhelmingly Democratic ward polling place to stay open longer. We are not talking about a handful of anything. We are talking about tens of thousands of illegal votes.

    Philadelphia and the Democratic machine dictate the voting of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia is a sick parody of American democracy at its worse.

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  93. I reread the post, bob, about McCain meeting and speaking with the Service Employees International Union, People for the American Way, UNITE HERE -- and ACORN.
    Here he is, on Feb. 20, 2006, telling immigration rights activists at a rally in Miami that they "are what makes America special."


    That was not presented as a complaint, but a reality. The same folk that support Obama, now, feted McCain in 2006.

    The pot and kettle stuff, that is an observation of the varied perspectives available to a voter.

    Much more a matter of perceptions than as Maverick being criticized for attending a meeting of the Service Employees International Union, People for the American Way, UNITE HERE -- and ACORN.

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  94. I should never have left the era of the abacus, Mat, I'm not 'shifty' enough to keep up.

    Sometimes stuff like that gives me the fears, and I start to think there's stuff I don't know!

    And I get a little paranoid once in a while....

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  95. There's a lot of misinformation, and exaggeration, all ways, out there, and I don't have the computer skills to filter it all.

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  96. What made those votes illegal?

    That the voters needed help?
    That they could not drive or perhaps walk?

    That campaigns provide gas money plus for the get out the vote project.

    Just as the US is doing in Baghdad?
    In the democracy we've established, there.

    Get out the vote funds should only be spread amongst the Rick Davis's and Rupert Murdocks, GE and Westinghouse and Disney?

    Where was the Team43 Justice Dept in all this, during the years of 2000 through 2006?

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  97. You ask why? We have a president in the White House, who thinks he is tough, but is not.

    You want to know tough, then you have to go to the Democratic side. I am talking street fighting, nose twisting ball grabbing stomping tough. In Philadelphia the Republicans slide in and out of town to the Union League and the Democrats own the corners.

    Bush never had the balls to take them on, and Ashcroft was more worried about seeing bronze tits than showing some big balls.

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