Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Letter to the Editor
Anonymous said:
You shouldn't be so tough on Internet advertising: this blog you spread your message on is given to you for free as a result of it. Just several years ago you would have had to pay to host an expensive server and rent a domain name to get your message out. Not to mention that Google has taken on the likes of Microsoft with their free suite of Google Doc publishing tools. Yeah, they even let you store your created documents on their servers also for free. And if you choose you can do all this in complete anonymity. Google and Internet advertising, albeit annoying, has changed the world for the better.
Nothing is free on the internet. I refuse constant attempts by Google and others to insert their advertising and that of their millions of advertisers. Any day they will require it and I will lose the ability to give you an ad free source of information. I have my own domain names and servers in place for the day the intenet is no longer free which will be very soon. Besides, we all pay to access the "free" information. There is no free distribution of my stories on the internet either by Google or anyone else. In spite of the fact I am a long time registered journalist any distribution of the stories short of extremely hard work and constant networking is at a very high cost as the Googles of the world along with the internet media refuse to run stories without payment. Just posting on the internet gets one nothing, including exposure.
Automated banking? Are you talking Internet banking? Just think about all those dummies recently standing in line to get their money out of failed banks. The fools should have been sitting at home moving their dough to safer institutions with their mouse and a few clicks.The biggest injustice we face hasn't changed, it's the use of media companies to further political agendas. At least the Internet is helping anyone who chooses to do so to harpoon those institutions.
You know those dummies standing in line at banks, well they got every cent they had deposited. The bigger dummies on the internet lost about $500 billion to fraud directly or indirectly related to the internet and credit cards last year. The cell phone users were losers as well with over $20 billion in losses. And even ATM machines were looted by hacking bank records to the tune of billions of dollars. If you add the other ramifications of identity theft from the internet the losses could be approaching a trillion dollars and guess whose internet, credit card and cell phone fees are adjusted to cover the losses, you!
Don't like what others say? Start a newspaper and put it in everyone's mailbox. The County Times should come to mind. Finally, some food for thought. No better tool has ever existed to expose corruption and find the truth than the Internet. Everything is archived and searchable. You've got the library of the world right at your desk 24/7. Just imagine how it would have changed your life had it been there in your youth.
The problem with the internet is there is no test of truth to what is posted. When it was originally started it was as a research tool with real institutions verifying the information. Now anyone can say anything with no relationship to truth and the gullible public believes much of what is posted. Just look at the vicious campaign rumors about both Obama and Palin that never went away, even after the truth had been established. As an entertainment tool the internet is great. As a source of truth it has led to the destruction of journalism as a source of true information and that is a sad commentary on life in general.
I was a newspaper reporter for a real newspaper and we had to have multiple sources, survive editing and fact checking and be able to capture the public attention before our stories were even published. Too bad such standards are not possible on the internet.
Finally, if the internet was such a valuable tool to protect us from corruption why is fraud and corruption using the internet and electronic trading, swaps and derivatives thriving, why did it just cost trillions of dollars in losses to unsuspecting people throughout the world, why has it destroyed our economy, and why can't anyone stop it?
Jordan Christopher
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Economic Meltdown - Where do we go from here?
For years we have warned you of the conflict of interest of the "industry analysts" employed by Wall Street to influence stock prices. We listed the billions of dollars in fines paid for fraud and corruption in the financial and pharmaceutical industries and watched with awe as Congress passed the $700 billion bailout to save the same firms. Over and over we warned that there was nothing "free" about our free market system that is being manipulated by sources far more powerful than our government.
Wall Street and Madison Avenue, the financial and advertising centers of the universe, have joined forces to brainwash and spoon feed the American public with seeds of greed, obsession with materialism and disregard for laws and authority. Here we are today, a new president, a Democratic congress, and an inspired electorate yet the same architects of our current economic chaos are firmly in control of both the present and new administration.
Nearly a trillion dollars in bailouts have already been approved by Congress and our new president, a second multi-billion dollar bailout will be approved before Obama is even sworn in as president. House Speaker Pelosi is meeting today with the auto manufacturers and union leaders to decide on a second 25 billion dollar bridge loan. Barney Frank has promised just about everything to everyone while Pelosi is treating the Treasury as an endless pit of money and our new president may not even have a voice in what takes place.
Make no mistake, Madison Avenue convinced us we must have everything and Wall Street served it up through the maze of financial tricks of the trade and no one bothered to ask do we really need all this stuff. No one bothered to wonder why car companies were making more money off repairing your new car than selling it as "planned obsolescence", in other words making cars that would break down, became a bigger profit center.
Our FDA has turned its head to the proliferation of new drugs from an industry used to charging about 10 to 20 times the fair market value for prescriptions. Tens of billions in fines have been paid by the same pharmaceutical firms for fraud, price fixing, and bribes to doctors and hospitals. Yet Congress wants to expand our already broken and highly corrupt health industry to provide unnecessary medical care and drugs to everyone.
Many consumer product companies are in serious trouble because people did the only thing they could to survive the financial disaster, they stopped wasting money and started saving what little they had left. That is a very good thing but will extend a recession for those interested in bailing out Wall Street. Our media became dependent on advertising dollars that no longer exist so watch for television, radio and cable stations and networks dependent on advertising to start going under.
Our internet firms like Yahoo, Google, E Bay and millions of small businesses on the net will see their value collapse even more as the ad money dries up and as people realize that internet advertising really is the most over-valued method of reaching people with an undiluted message. Credit card fraud, cell phone fraud and identity theft flourish as a result of the internet and the failure of anyone to protect the consumer from such predators. Automated banking will be the next victim of the internet.
Entertainment companies including the record industry are operating with a broken business model and have had to resort to corruption to make money. The five largest record companies in America have paid tens of millions of dollars in fines recently for bribing radio stations to play records and now over 600 radio stations are under investigation for corruption. The record industry is beyond fixing and must collapse.
Many of the very industries our Congress is saving have no business in a free market economy where innovation, quality, service and competition are supposed to be the dominant attributes. Right now we reward fraud, corruption, greed and unfair business practices. How long is the American public going to continue to support the industries with their money and support their protectors (Congress) with their votes? The day of reckoning is at hand.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A Day For The Ages - Obama & Lincoln
THE DREAM FULFILLED
Abraham Lincoln - 16th President
Barack Obama - 44th President
Just 23 days after he takes office as the 44th President,
Barack Obama - Abraham Lincoln - The Dream Fulfilled
On February 15, 2008 while analyzing the results of the Super Tuesday primaries, the Coltons Point Times became the first newspaper on the internet or in print to officially declare Barack Obama the next president of the United States, nine months before the vote that would confirm him on November 4. Click on the following link to see the full story.
Friday, February 15, 2008
IT'S OVER - OBAMA 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE USA
One month later, long before the end of the primary season and before Obama had won the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton a second story detailed how Obama would win the general election.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
WHY BARACK OBAMA WILL BE THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE USA!
Tonight history was made and tomorrow Barack Obama begins a difficult quest as the 44th President of the United States fulfilling the dream of the 16th President also from Illinois who dreamed all people would be free and all Americans would have equal opportunity.
Now Obama carries the hopes of a nation and the hopes of a world on his shoulders. May the hand of God guide him and may the wind be at his back as he becomes president of all the people and leader of the greatest nation on Earth.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Campaign 2008 - May the Last Person Standing Win
For those addicted to poll watching just remember that the media is famous for blowing it with the polls from the 2000 Gore win to the 2004 Kerry win along with disastrous exit polls both years, so don't take them too seriously. If Obama wins there will be support for the notion that major campaigns can be bought regardless of the merits of the campaign and I hope Congress will adopt campaign reform finally that eliminates once and for all the chance that America is for sale.
I was saddened to see that fear and hatred became much more dominant than previous campaigns and that is unfortunate for our future. Both sides were generous in their efforts to smear, unfairly characterize and trash their opponent and both took great liberties with the truth. Some can be blamed on over-zealous staff and some on idiotic supporters and a lot can be blamed on a media that seemed to have lost its sense of purpose and decided reporting the truth is no longer required of such an honorable profession.
If you followed my articles throughout the campaign you will note I was hard on both candidates at varying times and tried to remain somewhat balanced. I never took sides nor endorsed anyone but I did take exception when I felt the media did not give the candidates the respect they deserved for having the guts and commitment to sacrifice in running for office. Like them or not we all should appreciate what they did and give credit where credit is due.
As for the results, I said way back on March 5 that Obama would win and I spelled out the reasons. That was when he still trailed Hillary Clinton in the primaries. That was also before the oil price crisis, the home mortgage disaster, the economic collapse, and the fact Obama would raise three times as much money as McCain. By all rights Obama should be 15-20% ahead in the polls by now but he failed to break through the 50% barrier like he should have done. I expect his final result to be closer to 54-46% which represents a heroic effort by McCain and Palin.
I could be wrong, the McCain Palin ticket may do better in spite of the avalanche of Obama money that was thrown into the campaign. Still the sitting president and his lackadaisical approach to the economy, war and foreign relations made it almost impossible for any Republican to win. You might say McCain was bushwhacked along the way.
Of course the winner may very well be the loser in the end as I have written many articles detailing how I believe we are only in the beginning of the recession and there are forces at work to destroy our economy. It is entirely possible the new president will be like Jimmy Carter and be totally unable to steer the ship of state through the perilous times ahead.
Compounding the problem for Obama will be the demands from his various constituencies who will all claim credit for getting him elected and demand his time and attention to their needs first. His loyalties will be stretched thin between the unions and Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, between the Buffets and the uninsured Americans, between the Hollywood celebrities and the silent majority that will elect him.
Beyond that there is the far greater threat to his success which is the very result he worked to achieve, a solid Democratic control of the House and Senate, meaning a super majority that will deny the minority party any chance of influencing power. People will read an Obama victory as an overwhelming rejection of McCain when in truth it will mean a very slight win in terms of the American people.
Change we want, but returning the vast majority of Congressional incumbents to office will make it impossible for Obama to bring about much change when the very people who got us into this mess are still here. Bush may be gone, but he never had a veto proof majority in Congress which means the democrats, when they were a minority and majority power, still share the blame for everything that happened. By 2010 Obama will have to run against his own Congress to have any chance of bringing about all the changes he wants.
Regardless of who wins, all Americans owe their support to the new president and the efforts he will have to make to restore our world image, manage our battered economy and heal our many wounds from a government that lost sight of the very people it was meant to serve. That is the American way. We can disagree amongst ourselves but we must stand united in order to face the challenges that will try and prevent us from being the most powerful yet generous and compassionate people on earth.
For those of you who don't think Coltons Point gets much notice in the world you should know that we have about 370 residents of the Point but the readership of the Coltons Point Times has now passed 18,500. If only the new president would read the CPT he would have a much easier time solving our nation's problems.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Obama Campaign Politburo Silences ABC and CBS Journalists - Shades of Soviet Censorship
Obama New World Order Shows True Colors in Blacklisting Media
Is this a sign of things to come in the New World Order of Obama? For the second time recently journalists for major television network affiliates were interviewing Joe Biden asking about direct quotes of Obama concerning spreading the wealth and the relationship to socialism or Marxism.
The response of the vice president in waiting was to scorn the journalists and order the Obama campaign to smear the character and reputation of these local news stations, ban all future interviews with any representatives of the campaign, and quite possibly block any political ads from running locally thus denying them access to the 3/4 billion dollar media slush fund of the Obama campaign.
Barbara West, a 16 year veteran health and news anchor for WFTV ABC 9 in Orlando became the second victim of the Bulldog Biden censorship of the television media after a recent tantrum by Biden with KYW TV CBS 3 in Philadelphia over the same line of questions.
Biden has adopted a page out of the Lenin and Stalin Communist Manifesto to respond to a question about the Marxist leanings of the Democratic ticket and Democratic Congressional leadership that has pledged to take veto proof control of the White House and US Congress. Biden blacklisted the television affiliates and denied them access to our political leadership just because he doesn't like the questions they asked. The Obama campaign immediately moved to enforce the censorship.
Is this the kind of change they intend to jam down the throats of Americans that dare to question the oftentimes whimsical policies and programs to be pursued by the Obama New World Order? Well they should be honest and state that censorship of the media and persecution of dissenters will be part of their New World Order.
It is no wonder that recent polls in socialist leaning European countries show Obama to be favored over McCain 5-1 as the Obama campaign has already demonstrated an attitude toward the freedom of the press more in line with the old Soviet regime that silenced critics without remorse. We bet the tens of millions of dollar media blitz by the Obama campaign this last week will say nothing of the real agenda for the Obama - Pelosi - Reid New World Order about to take over the last outpost of pure democracy left in the world.
Maybe we should all move to Alaska and join Todd Palin in fighting the socialist stampede about to overrun the continental USA. Ironically it seems the only nation on earth aware of the dangers of the new push toward world socialism is Russia where the socialist communist experiment was implemented for about 75 years with devastating results including the loss of individual freedom, destruction of the free press and the liquidation of over 60 million citizens in the interest of the state. Russia learned the lesson the hard way, perhaps we should listen to them more and condemn them a little less?
Friday, October 24, 2008
The worldwide financial meltdown. Are the players, analysts and media guilty as well?
If there is anything we have learned this election cycle it is that the experts in the fields of economics, banking, housing, defense, automobiles and a host of other industries have been dead wrong for years and as a result there may be nothing left of the economy for the next president to inherit. Make no mistake, they have been wrong over and over again and yet the media gave them credibility so like just like the Pied Piper, we have followed them down the path to self-destruction.
Now we are faced with a choice for president between well meaning but relatively inexperienced people and we are about to entrust them with our future in perhaps the most difficult period of our history so what lessons have we learned? Ironically, many in America continue to blindly follow the Pied Pipers, the very same people who taught us the meaning of greed.
Thanks to the overwhelming lack of humility of the media I feel a little uncomfortable saying it but wasn't it Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount who said; "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). What a shame when quoting Jesus can result in condemnation from the very media who is supposed to be telling us the truth.
Well this very media has been engaged in a financial conspiracy dedicated to establishing greed, desire and possession as the virtues of American society as they have bombarded us for decades with all the things we had to own to keep up with the Jones's or to be a leader. Fancy cars, clothes, country club memberships, spas, lattes, you name it, there is not enough money on earth to acquire everything they want you to buy and the more expensive the better.
Oh yes, the media had to attract the billions in advertising dollars from the greed mongers in order to brainwash an unsuspecting public into following a path of economic moral bankruptcy. But the day would come when the excesses of corporations and the lies and deceits of the experts would finally bleed the last drops of blood money from the public and that day has now come not just here but around the entire world.
The American public could see this coming and the experts didn't. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll showed the people no longer trusted politicians, Congress, financial experts and the media as their credibility ratings dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. What was the difference? Well the experts relied on the philosophy of the products of the best businesses schools in the world while the meek relied on the Bible and the teachings of a humble man named Jesus.
What is the result, economic chaos. What is the conclusion, the experts were wrong. So if they were wrong, why does the media continue to embrace them, give us their latest version of what is going to happen, and expect the public (the fools in the world according to the media) to still follow?
Barach Obama, the least experienced of the candidates, did the only thing he could and used an enormous war chest of money to surround himself with the best, most experienced experts in the world, a Whose Who of Policy experts. These are the very same experts who caused the economic destruction of the world we now face and make no mistake, we are only feeling the beginnings of the fruits of deception and greed.
Look at the record. My last article detailed how the executives of Goldman Sachs recruited Obama to run for president and have helped finance the most expensive campaign in history. To give himself the benefit of others experience Obama surrounded himself with former Goldman executives as his key advisors and endorsers including Robert Rubin (former Goldman CEO), New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (former Goldman CEO) and a host of fund raisers from Goldman's that gave over $800,000 and raised millions more.
Obama was seduced into supporting the Wall Street bailout, in fact was a leader in bringing it about according to the Democratic party press releases, a bailout designed by yet another former Goldman CEO Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen. Finally, Obama says billionaire Warren Buffet is his close friend and closest advisor on the economy. Buffet also is now one of the largest stockholders in Goldman Sachs with over $5 billion in the company. There is an old Chicago motto that comes in to play as Buffet not only propped up Goldman but went public to tell Congress to get the bailout done! That motto, "Ubi Est Mea" means "Where's mine?"
To establish his foreign policy credentials Obama got the endorsement of Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. This was another beneficiary of Goldman largess and was the one who personally took the case to the United Nations to justify the invasion of Iraq, a war Obama says he opposed from the beginning though he was only a young state senator with no involvement in world wars at the time. In housing, there are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac people throughout his campaign.
So does surrounding oneself with the very people who have led the nation down the path of destruction give one the experience necessary to lead us through the worst period of our history? Judgment is a very interesting thing when selecting people to prove you have credentials as having experience is not nearly as important as learning from experience. If the very people that brought on these deceptions and mistakes are the people you rely on, then not only do you rely on the wrong experience but you demonstrate bad judgment as well.
It would seem the Obama cabinet might as well meet in the Goldman Sachs boardroom as the faces of his team already line the walls of former executives, benefactors and stockholders of the company whose corporate motto is proudly proclaimed as, "Long Term Greed!" Now maybe it is time to update the motto and add, "Take the Money and Run!".
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Obama versus McCain or Goldman Sachs versus The Rothschilds
News the media won't report!
Did it ever occur to you that perhaps your vote really doesn't matter because whatever happens in America is being orchestrated by more powerful sources? Few people understand the power and financial influence of two of the most powerful international financial houses in world history and it may very well be they are heavily involved in cutthroat competition for control of our next president. Yet the media has not even begun to question the relationship between these international bankers and our candidates for president.
Well they should before it is too late. Some would argue it may already be too late as the Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the two candidates have already joined forces to adopt the most comprehensive bail out of Wall Street and the banking community every seen in American history and followed it with similar action in every major nation throughout the world.
While Congress and the candidates talk about a $700 billion bailout that was necessary to save the economy, the Federal Reserve and Treasury were quietly adopting new programs and regulations to provide direct assistance to the financial markets bringing the total bailout to nearly $3 trillion. As if that is not enough, the Democratic leadership in Congress also intends to offer a future bribe to the taxpayer of another $300 billion stimulation program if Obama gets elected.
How in the world did the Democrats and Republicans, the liberals and conservatives and the media of this nation all agree to such a massive commitment to save the very institutions that cheated, committed fraud, bent regulations and out-smarted the best minds in government and finance? How did people with opposing philosophies who were bitter political rivals bury the hatchet in the midst of one of the most contentious presidential campaigns in history, just a few weeks before the dramatic climax?
Well perhaps the quiet involvement of Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds may explain as these global powerhouses have been getting their way with governments since long before most modern governments even existed.
In 1750, 26 years before the American Declaration of Independence the Rothschild family began their journey to become the most powerful financial family in world history and though to this day the vast majority of their holdings are privately held, estimates of their family holdings are as much as $167 trillion dollars. Strategic actions over the 258 year continuous evolvement of the Rothschilds has led to control of much of the world supply of gold, oil, diamonds and many other assets.
As for Goldman Sachs, they were founded in 1869, shortly after the end of the US Civil War and at the dawning of the industrial revolution in America joining yet another family firm still around today, J.P. Morgan whose work to save the Union during the Civil War earned it many privileges during the explosion of growth in America including the opportunity to finance the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire with Rothschild money.
In time the three factions would appear to undertake the most intense competition between them for control of the global financial system ever seen but in the end, though all three groups remain the sole survivors today in terms of American influence, it became known that Morgan was serving as a front for the Rothschilds in order for the Rothschilds to maintain a low profile in America. But low profile or not they dominated what happened and how it happened.
As for the involvement in this election cycle, Goldman Sachs and the Rothschilds have again taken on each other with the Rothschilds jumping onto the McCain bandwagon late in the campaign while Goldman Sachs has been imbedded in the Obama campaign since the beginning. While the Rothschilds have seemingly played a much smaller role in McCain's efforts much remains to be disclosed of the Goldman role with Obama.
This much can be reported. Back when Obama was a freshman candidate for Senator he was selected to be keynote speaker for the Democratic national convention in 2004. A nobody from Chicago was plucked from midair and cast into the most important slot in the convention. How he would up there remains to be revealed.
Just a little over one year after being elected as a junior senator, in 2006 Obama was the featured guest before a private gathering of the Goldman Sachs executives in Chicago, an honor unheard of for someone that politically insignificant, speaking before the most powerful financial firm on Wall Street and one of the most powerful in the world. This was quietly reported in Bloomberg News.
It was the launch of his presidential campaign and Goldman executives soon gave over $800,000 to jump start the Obama presidential bid along with collecting millions of dollars from their fellow Wall Street firms and clients. Oh yes, Robert Rubin became the Obama economic expert, a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Billionaire Warren Buffet became his most trusted economic advisor, a man who was to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs in the height of the economic meltdown. Yet Buffet was also a personal guest of Lord Rothschild at a private conference at his English estate.
The story only gets better. On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing. The exclusive private dinner was for Goldman Sachs traders and featured a discussion on issues by Obama moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw. Once again the circumstances are strange as a year later Brokaw would be moderating the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain and the economy and Wall Street were the main points of discussion. Of course the debate commission and McCain were unaware that Obama and Brokaw had already held a practice session the year earlier.
Then comes the financial meltdown which can be traced back to a couple of major events. The first major change to the regulatory framework that opened the door to Enron and the sub-prime crisis occurred in 1991, when Goldman Sachs, through a subsidiary called J. Aron, argued that even though it was an investment bank it should be granted the same exemption given to commercial traders in the commodity markets because it was in the business of buying commodities as a middleman. It was granted by the CFTC.
A second turning point came when Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, that formally allowed investors to trade energy commodities on private electronic platforms outside the purview of regulators. Critics have called this piece of legislation the "Enron loophole," saying Enron played a role in crafting it. In the months after the act was passed, private electronic trading platforms sprang up across the country, challenging the dominance of NYMEX.
Investment banks like Goldman's had been frustrated with the established exchange because they really were never able to get control of it according to Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former staff member at the CFTC. The new law allowed them to create a private trading platform. The most successful of the private platforms was InterContinental Exchange, or ICE, founded by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and a few other big brokerages in 2000. ICE soon opened a trading platform in London, allowing its founders to trade vast quantities of U.S. oil overseas without being subject to regulation. This opened the floodgates to oil price speculation.
Suddenly comes the current economic chaos and the president calls a meeting of Congressional leaders, Treasury, Federal Reserve staff and the presidential candidates. Obama, who was staying away from Washington during the crisis got the call and at the meeting he spoke about economic issues that reportedly had been prepared by the Republicans and was being reviewed by Treasury yet wound up in the Obama campaign. Of course the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulsen was a former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs as is the new head of the $700 billion Treasury bailout program.
Do we really know anything about the long term relationship between Obama and Goldman Sachs other than their massive fund raising for him? Since he has been secretly guided and financed by Goldman people from the very beginning of his presidential campaign were they influential in his economic platform? Obama never questioned the role of Goldman in the sub-prime fiasco nor in manipulating the oil futures prices. When Goldman specialists tried to drive the price of oil up to $200 a barrel this year Obama never said a word.
Long before this time the Goldman Sachs Foundation had quietly channeled funds to Colin Powell's new group, America's Promise and Powell himself was collecting honorariums from $50,000 to $100,000 for speaking to various groups including Goldman sponsored events. At some point between the time he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then left government, only to come back as Bush Secretary of State, Powell acquired between $1 million and $5 million of stock in giant defense contractor General Dynamics, a firm in which the Roshschilds have extensive ownership. Powell eventually would be converted from a McCain financial contributor and friend to endorser of Obama in less than a year.
As for the Rothschilds and McCain, it was not until this year that they held a fund raiser for him in London hosted by Lord Jacob Rothschild and his son, Nathaniel Rothschild in the posh London Spencer House on March 28, 2008. As I said at the beginning, the Rothschilds are the oldest, biggest and most powerful of all financial houses and have long chosen to remain in the background while other firms fronted their interests.
Although they compete with firms like Goldman they also cooperate often on international mergers and acquisitions, have been partners in the oil futures exchange, and recently both sought to expand their influence in Asia with the Rothschilds selling a 20% interest in one of their companies to the Bank of China. The Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed commercial bank will pay $341 million for the stake in the French arm of the La Compagnie Financière. It is the first strategic investment by a leading Chinese bank in the eurozone.
In spite of being foreign based the Rothschilds have been one of the chief beneficiaries of the economic crisis in America as J.P. Morgan and Barclays, firms with significant equity held by the Rothschilds, were able to gobble up Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual in sweetheart deals for a fraction of their asset values in the midst of the crisis.
So what control do we really have over the election, over the president and over the Congress? We know control has been lost of the economy, of world trade and of international finance. Most government institutions seem to be operating at the whim and call of the financial giants. Can we expect more after this election? Is America for sale to the highest bidder and is Obama's $500 million campaign the highest bid? All this bodes ill for the liberal, left wing groups and unions rallying around Obama as they may very well be discarded when they have served the purpose of winning the elections.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Obama's Got the Wailin' Palin Blues
© 2008 by Jim Putnam
Obama's got the wailin' Palin blues
he thought he'd silenced women when Hillary did lose
Little did he know from Alaska far away
a gun-totin' momma came to ruin Obama's day
And so Obama's got the wailin' Palin blues
Old Biden called her good looking he hasn't got a clue
The media said this backwoods babe just wasn't qualified
Obama was their man no woman could push him aside
Now Oprah's got the wailin' Palin blues
Poor Oprah she just don't know what to do
Keep that woman off my show Baracks the One that much I know
Keep that hockey mom away from me
she might steal Obama's dream that I see
So Rangel's got the wailin' Palin blues
He called Sarah disabled what a nasty thing to do
Like Gibson and Georgie on ABC TV
Those good old boys are just too blind to see
MSNBC has the wailin' Palin blues
Keith and Chris lost it when they heard the news
They tried to kick her back to the kitchen oh what fools
Now the moose huntin' momma's got a bullseye right on you
Hollywood's got the wailin' Palin blues
They said she was a lousy Disney movie oh what fools
Palin smile said I'll help you the stars went out the sky turned blue
Go sip your wine and shake your jewels you've had your time you're through
That's why Obama's got the wailin' Palin blues
He realized sweet Sarah just might make him lose
As he sits and watches his coronation slip away
he slaps himself for ever letting Hillary get away
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Obama President - Palin Vice President - What if the electoral vote is tied?
Right now the election is too close to call. There are 538 total electoral votes and 270, a simple majority, are needed to get someone elected. It is technically possible for the election to end in a tie, with Obama and McCain each getting 269 electoral votes, one shy of the majority needed to be president. If that happens, then the election of the president is up to the House and the vice president up to the Senate.
Each state delegation is expected to vote according to their party affiliation but each state only has one vote in the total votes cast. Thus the House would vote for Obama since there is a clear House majority of Democrats. In the Senate there is a tie between Democrats and Republicans, each with 59 members, while two other Senators are independents. Joe Lieberman, a very close friend and endorser of McCain, is an independent who joined the Democrats to give the Democrats control of the Senate.
Because of Lieberman's support of McCain the Senate democratic leadership have threatened to strip him of any party rank in the new Senate. So if the vice president is to be decided by the Senate, Lieberman could easily change his vote, thus eliminating the Democratic majority. If he cast his vote for Palin it would decide the election.
The result would mean Obama would be president and Palin would be vice president for the next four years and given an electoral tie there would be no other probable conclusion. With the polls closing as expected in these last days such a scenario becomes more and more possible. There are so many firsts in this election, not to mention worldwide economic catastrophes and other strange circumstances, that a result as I outlined may not be so far fetched.
Here is what the Constitution says about the election of the president and vice president in Article II and the procedure is quite clear.
Article II
Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President.
Amendment XII
The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The World Economic Meltdown - The Hopi Purification of Mankind?
For a few thousand years the original inhabitants of America have had prophecies and oral histories talking about the future coming of the White man and the eventual destruction of America as the future rulers did not listen to the pleads of the natives to change our ways by honoring Father Creator, showing respect for Mother Earth and demonstrating love for fellow man.
These prophecies told how a lust for power, a hunger for possessions and an obsession for what others had would corrupt civilization, bankrupt our morality, and in the end, if mankind was incapable of correcting those flaws then divine intervention would be necessary to protect Mother Earth. For thousands of years Native American nations like the Hopi have patiently worked to protect Mother Earth and awaken humankind.
At the end of the present cycle of civilization there would come a quickening of time, everything would seem to be moving faster and faster as the frequency of Earth increased in order to achieve a lighter density in preparation for the planet Earth to separate into two worlds, with the New World moving to the next higher frequency or dimension.
Ancient Hopi Petroglyths:
The Old World would remain behind with all those who refused the opportunity to become enlightened and refuse to remember our original mission on Earth. Those who thrived on the control and misery of others, who sought material gratification, and forgot how to love all God's creatures, would remain.
The New World would return to the original mission of humankind on Earth living in service, peace, harmony and being free of evil or illness. The survivors would inherit the New World and begin a new cycle of civilization in a higher dimension. These are the people who recognized the quickening and took action to remain open and calm as the frequency storm hit Earth. Many signs are given to awaken the people. Not all people will notice them. Some will choose to ignore them as they are trapped in the dark side of humanity.
At the end of the quickening comes the purification as taught by ancient Hopi prophecy. Many believe this is another version of the Christian Rapture. Of course the Hopi prophecy pre-dated Christianity by many thousands of years but many indigenous peoples and cultures have similar prophecies of the time of the purification. If we were to judge a little less and listen a little more we could see the many common truths in all the Creation, Purification and End Times prophecies.
So what if we are in the time of the quickening that precedes the purification as many peoples believe? Some of the more common signs among cultures is that the institutions of the Old World, those that have controlled people, corrupted economies and marketed immorality with an astonishing degree of success, will suddenly fail. There will be signs to make people aware. Perhaps the potential collapse of the financial system throughout the world is one of these signs.
If you wanted to send a message and get the attention of the people of the world, all at once, then destroying the global economic system would be far more obvious than a remote war. The world is addicted to an economic system that epitomizes all that is bad from corruption to greed, possession to power, and lust to jealousy. The domino effect this would have on all the other corrupt institutions of the world would be amazing from religion to politics, government to banks, media to medical care, pharmaceuticals to entertainment. Things would rapidly ground to a halt.
If there is a silver lining in the dark clouds on the horizon they are this. Many people have studied the ancient prophecies or the more recent body of prophecies by the Holy Mother Mary. Very specific ways to prepare for the purification are provided if your intent is to raise your level of consciousness and move on to the New World. We are taught to visualize ourselves in the eye of the hurricane where there is peace and calm in the middle of the chaos and destruction.
When you open your eyes and see what is happening to our world today, you must seek out those who are here and can help you. Call them adepts or enlightened, they have heard the warnings, have studied the signs, and can help you if you choose the path to the New World. Seek them out among your neighbors and friends. They will be the ones not caught up in the hysteria of the moment, not shocked by the speed at which our institutions are failing, and not bound to any dogma except serving and helping people find their way.
If the prophecies are right we must be prepared to let go of everything we know and remember everything we forgot. We must remember the power of unconditional love and the strength of giving. We must not judge but embrace empathy and hope. Most of all, we must pray in whatever manner allows us to be comfortable, but pray with the right intentions.
Albert Einstein with the Hopi:
If the prophecies are wrong, well they might just be delayed a bit because some people are working to bring good to the world. And that would still give us time to try and heal our institutions and Earth before it is too late. The continued economic chaos and the blinding speed with which things change gives one cause to think that maybe the prophecies are right. Are you prepared for the quickening and purification?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Big Bailout - Free Market Socialism or Government Regulated Capitalism?
What price did we just pay for stabilization of the stock market? Did we just take a giant leap into the abyss of Free Market Socialism or Government Regulated Capitalism, either of which has never been a part of the American capitalist system? Even more important, did it fix the problems? Since the raid on the US Treasury went so smoothly don't be surprised if more demons of past behavior don't surface in the near future that also have to be addressed to save the struggling economy.
What hasn't been done? For one, the Congress and other elected officials must be banned from taking campaign money from all special interests from the corporations of Wall Street to the labor unions. This bailout is the best evidence yet that campaign contributions from those with a conflict of interest have no place in America. Beyond that lobbying by any group or organization benefiting from any of the many packages to bailout Wall Street or Main Street must be prohibited. Blood money from lobbyists has contaminated our political process to a degree never seen before. Does anyone think Congress and the new president will have the guts and honesty to do this?
Second of all, why has there been no discussion of the hidden debt or losses already incurred by the Wall Street titans in terms of unregulated derivatives and swaps I have discussed in previous articles? I believe there are about $62 trillion more in hidden losses directly attributable to greed, a level of losses far greater than what we have already dealt with in this crisis. If I am right, the economy could go into a severe recession or even depression and if the losses are any larger the consequences could be unimaginable.
In an earlier article about the resilience of the American economy I said the rest of the world cannot afford to let us fail. Recent events demonstrated just what I meant as a problem in the American housing market nearly destroyed the world economy. Perhaps I need to rethink my conclusion as we just were witness to a world teetering on the brink of economic destruction because of a little greed in the way mortgages were approved. It just might be that the world no longer has the ability to help America if we collapse and the interdependence of world markets and speed of world communications will bring down everyone within days.
One thing is certain, our economic system and congress are permeated with people who hold greed to a higher standard than honesty, with people who believe taking is more important than giving, and with people who place far more faith in the almighty dollar than the Almighty God. The foundation of our nation's existence is that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights. We are a nation that puts "In God We Trust" on currency and "One nation under God" in our national anthem. Somehow the Christian values so important to the formation of this nation have been lost in Washington, in Wall Street, in the media and in the overwhelming desire for more power, wealth and control.
What could happen? Read Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged and you will see as the mysterious John Galt led the disappearance of the little people who were the foundation for the wealth accumulated by the rich and greedy and all the puppets who served them. Fascism, socialism and communism were all targets of her failures of civilization and a couple of them could still be around today. Come to think of it, after the great nationalization efforts this dark October things may not be all that different.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Hey Wall Street - Enough is Enough! Or Did You Already Bet on Obama?
In yet another slap in the face to the American consumer the greed mongers on Wall Street have gotten everything they wanted from the President, the Congress, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the international central banks, even the two candidates for president Obama and McCain and still they refuse to release the trillions of US dollars they are hoarding while continuing to hold the economy hostage.
Over two trillion dollars in American pension savings have gone up in smoke this year as the forces behind the government have manipulated and raped every treasure trove they could find to protect their precious credit, line their pockets, and demonstrate to the government just who is in charge of the US economy. Such behavior almost borders on criminal if there were any laws that existed to prosecute the predators of lower Manhattan. But thanks to the millions of dollars in special interest contributions poured into the campaigns and pockets of our elected officials no such laws exist.
Is it just circumstance that only two investment houses survived the economic meltdown this year and gobbled up all their competitors, two firms now sitting on billions if not trillions of our funds? Is it circumstance these firms have the power to call accounts in other companies, in other words demand early payment, when there is no money to be had thus driving those competitors out of business?
Is it circumstance that the survivors, Goldman Sachs and J P Morgan owned and controlled the London energy futures market used to drive up the price of oil and devastate our economy and that of the world? Well is it circumstance that these companies have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of our elected officials and both were the primary beneficiaries of stunning government actions to rescue the economy?
As of August 31 according to the Center for Responsive Government Barack Obama had raised about $460 million compared to about $230 million for McCain. Obama is the first federal candidate in our history to refuse public financing even though he pledged to take the public financing which would have greatly reduced his spending in the campaign.
Goldman Sachs temple in Wall Street.
So what financial interest did Goldman Sachs have in Barack Obama? Since the beginning of his campaign the boys at Goldmans have been the biggest contributors to Obama and helped bring in millions from the Wall Street establishment. Goldman executives alone have given Obama $739,521 and have helped raise the following from Wall Street firms for Obama. CitiGroup - $492,548, J P Morgan - $475,112, UBS - $419,550, Lehman Brothers - $391,774, Morgan Stanley - $341,380 and various amounts from Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.
What could be Obama's fascination with Goldman Sachs? Well it goes back as Bloomberg News reported Obama was the featured speaker at the Goldman's annual partners meeting in 2006 in Chicago. This was a junior member of the US Senate who had not even been in office two years yet he was speaking to the top executives of one of the most powerful investment houses in the world. There is something very strange about the circumstance.
The story only gets better. On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing. The exclusive private dinner was for Goldman Sachs traders and featured a discussion on issues moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw. Once again the circumstances are strange as a year later Brokaw would be moderating the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain and the economy and Wall Street were the main points of discussion. Of course the debate commission and McCain were unaware that Obama and Brokaw had already held a practice session the year earlier when Obama was facing a withering attack from Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the democratic primary.
Now that is three most unusual encounters between Obama and Goldman Sachs. Then comes the economic chaos and the president calls a meeting of Congressional leaders, Treasury and Federal Reserve staff and the presidential candidates. Obama, who was staying away from Washington during the crisis got the call and at the meeting was the only person to talk about a Republican alternative proposal for the crisis, a proposal that had not even been made public at the time.
It was later learned that a Treasury staff member reviewing the confidential proposal from Republicans was able to smuggle the information to Goldman Sachs employees who emailed it to Obama staff and it was given to him before the White House meeting, thus enabling him to pre-empt McCain from offering the new Republican proposal. Of course the Secretary of the Treasury was a former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Do we really know anything about the relationship between Obama and Goldman Sachs other than their massive fund raising for him? Since he has been secretly guided and financed by Goldman people from the very beginning of his presidential campaign were they influential in his economic platform. While he now admits things have changed and many of his proposals might be delayed or dropped, he still proposed a tax on the rich which would seem to be opposed to the Goldman executives.
Yet it was convenient that Goldman faced billions in losses from the sub-prime mortgage mess and they helped trigger the economic collapse with the manipulation of oil futures driving the world into a credit crisis, a crisis that helped them make billions of dollars through spiraling oil prices. Most convenient of all, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan was approved just before a new president was elected so the new president would not be blamed for anything that went wrong.
Obama never questioned the role of Goldman in the sub-prime fiasco nor in manipulating the oil futures prices. When Goldman specialists tried to drive the price of oil up to $200 a barrel Obama never said a word. His meetings with them over the years were in secret and his actions were a wall of silence as the boys from Wall Street destroyed the economic system forcing a historic bailout by Congress that gave Wall Street nearly unlimited access to the US Treasury. Now did all of these incidents slip his mind as well as if his secret meetings with Goldman had nothing to do with the economy. I hope he can explain to the public just what has been going on and what, if anything he promised them in return.
Polling the Polls - Too Close to Call
As we have been warning for the past year, the polls in the presidential race are wrong and the latest round of poll releases demonstrates just how wrong they are. Five major tracking polls have been released in the past 24 hours and the difference is night and day. Each day of the campaign has seen major shifts but the most important factor is that Real Politics shows that McCain-Palin has been slowly and surely closing the gap.
Right now Gallup shows Obama ahead by 11 counting all registered voters and leaners, the Rasmussen poll of likely and leaning voters shows Obama ahead by 6, the Reuters/Zogby poll of likely voters shows Obama ahead by 2, while the Battleground poll shows Obama ahead by 4 and the Hotline poll shows Obama ahead by 1. Realclearpolitics.com, which compiles and averages all polls, show the Obama lead has shrunk to just 3, well within the margin of error.
By now there should be about 10% undecided and the Zogby poll shows 8% while Gallup shows 7%. With about 4 weeks left anyone can win the election so hold on to your hats. There is only one poll that really counts, election day!
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Campaign 2008 - Defining Issues - Abortion
There is nothing unusual about the fact the Democratic candidates are pro-abortion and the Republican candidates are pro-life, that happens most elections. What is different is the Palin effect and the fact she refused to have an abortion of a child even though she knew it had down syndrome before birth. Then there is her teenage daughter who got pregnant and also refused to have an abortion. In response the feminist leftists condemned Palin, the pro-abortionists have gone on television condemning her and the pro-abortion media has denounced her choice.
For better or worse they have collectively made abortion a matter of public debate with hysterical claims that Sarah Palin would single handedly reverse the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Roe versus Wade, that legalized abortion in America. Such a claim is false because a vice president cannot reverse the Supreme Court and Sarah Palin has never said such a thing but telling the truth does not seem to be a concern of the political pundits. Her magnetic attraction to the public and ability to draw thousands to see her give her a platform never before seen on this side of the issue.
As for Roe versus Wade, it was a ruling by the Supreme Court that centrally held that a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the "point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable'". The Court defined viable as being potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid. In 1973 viability usually occurred at about seven months (28 weeks) but might occur earlier, even at 24 weeks. Medical breakthroughs since the ruling and prenatal advances have demonstrated that the ability of the fetus to live outside the mother's womb may come at a much earlier time.
So what is the real story with abortion in America? It has been 35 years since the Supreme Court ruling. The pro-abortion movement changed their name to pro-choice to improve their image and the anti-abortion movement changed their name to pro-life for the same reason, both changes within a couple of years of Roe versus Wade.
As for the record in America since passage of Roe versus Wade, as of 2008 there have now been 50 million legal abortions in the US, a total that somehow gets left out of all discussions of abortion. For comparison purposes, the total people killed in all wars fought by the United States from the War of Independence through Iraq is 1,315,237. In other words there have been 38 times as many abortions in 35 years as death from wars in 232 years. The total abortions in the US is nearly equal to the entire population of England or France.
Worldwide there have now been over 1 billion abortions in the years between 1920 and 2008 according to estimates of the United Nations Population Fund. That means total abortions now equal about 16% of the population of the world. Every year there are about 50 million abortions worldwide.
Beyond the basic belief that the government has no right to legislate morality, a favored argument of the pro-choice movement to justify the abortion option, they also offer three conditions of pregnancy that dominate their defense of unrestricted abortions. First they say it is justified in the case of rape or incest. Total abortions performed annually according to multiple studies and reports reflect less than 1% for rape or incest.
A second justification is in the event of the threat of death to the mother for completing the term. The same studies have shown this is the reason for slightly less than 2% of the abortions. Finally they claim the health of the fetus, when shown to be suffering from life threatening or severe physical impediments is another justification but again this only represents less than 2% of abortions. In other words, the three primary justifications total just under 5% of total annual abortions. Of the 50 million abortions about 2.5 million fall in the three most emotional, most often mentioned and most overrated reasons for abortions. That means 47.5 million abortions that have been performed don't fall into those classifications.
What does this mean to the election? Catholics and other Christian congregations are the strongest group opposed to abortion and we have written earlier how the 47 million Catholics of voting age represent a total demographic block equal to over 25% of all eligible voters. The concentration of Catholics and Christian sharing similar views in swing states make the group even more substantial. With Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, both Catholics advocating abortions, then going on NBC Meet the Press and attempting to distort the teachings of the Catholic Church, the issue has become very hot.
Finally, there is the very dark side of the history of the pro-abortion movement which is not generally known to many dating back to the work of Margaret Sanger early in the 20th century to legalize first birth control and then abortions. She is generally recognized as the founder of pro-abortion and Planned Parenthood and her work in eugenics is a very hidden and dark side of the movement.
Back at the turn of the century some eugenics advocates such as Margaret Sanger used it as a justification for state-sponsored discrimination, forced sterilization of persons deemed genetically defective, and the killing of institutionalized populations. It evolved into a practice intended to cleanse the human population of inferior classes and cultures. Sanger's newsletters and organizations were advocates of this social philosophy and her associates worked with people including Ernst Rudin who became architects of the Nazi Aryan Purification programs under Adolph Hitler.
Although eugenics has been condemned by pro-abortion groups in recent history abortions have resulted in significant "defective" children being aborted and overall 58% of abortions involve Whites while 34% involve Blacks. Such a controversial justification for abortion is relatively unknown to members of the current pro-choice movement.
Depending on the reaction of the Catholic Church to the Pelosi and Biden fiascos, the efforts of the many Christian coalitions opposed to abortion and the growing awareness of the history and stunning numbers of abortions now being performed, there is a potential for this issue to impact on the presidential race. Sarah Palin could also ignite the debate with her fierce opposition to the movement and leftist media attacks against her. In the end, any or all of these factors could help fire up the issue and make it impossible to factor it into the polls.
Monday, October 06, 2008
Palin Must See TV - The Great Debate
Palin power pulled 20 million more viewers than the darling of the liberal media Barack Obama. For probably the first time in history a vice presidential candidate buried the presidential candidate audience in an avalanche of television followers and proved to the world that her experience and media savvy are far more powerful than Barack's inexperience and media manipulation when it comes to the typical American viewer.
Now the liberal leftist pundits say a candidate for vice president can never win an election for president but these are the same pundits who failed to warn us about the stock market crash, the credit crisis, the budget deficit and even the Yankees and Cubs being knocked out of the World Series. Their credibility to the general public is well below that of President Bush and threatens the Congress for having the lowest credibility of any profession in America. No one believes the media. No one believes the politicians.
I believe the vice presidential candidate can win the election when both candidates for president have the same standing in polls on issues like being prepared, qualified, trusted to be president, etc. and for now McCain and Obama are little different. What these same media pundits fail to say is that for the first time in our history women, not the bra burning feminists of 5th Avenue and Hollywood and Vine but the Main Street grandmothers, mothers and daughters who have watched in dismay as the media, politicians and Wall Street have sunk into the cesspool of corruption, back room deals and greed, these women can make things different.
These women you never read about in People Magazine or Crime Reporter have waited a long time for the men to get it right, the men of the left and the men of the right, and things are not getting any better no matter which way you turn. No, the seeds were planted long ago for a populist revolt in America and not just in Iraq but in Viet Nam. The people who run our government have been around for a very long time. But this time the silent women's majority has a choice to send a message so loud and clear it will knock the socks off the feet and the dirty cash out of the pockets of the entire male dominated establishment in the media, in Washington and on Wall Street.
Love her or hate her Palin is the only one of the big four candidates not contaminated by Wall Street, not contaminated by Washington insiders and not contaminated by a pandering media. She is the only candidate who is not a member of the most sacred men's club in Washington, in America,the US Senate. The people are truly fed up with the establishment, the existing order of things and the people who have brought us the mess we are in, and only one candidate is not part of that tainted establishment, Sarah Palin.
That is why she draws far bigger audiences, interest and even media attention than the big three. And if the silent majority of women decide for the first time in history that enough is enough, then the cocky candidates and cranky media will be in for the surprise of their collective lives when the Moose hunting momma kicks the butts of the mainstream media, the elite establishment and the executives of Wall Street come November 4.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Campaign 2008 - Defining Issues - The Catholic Vote
No religious group in America packs the political potential of the Catholic Church with over 47 million registered voters, over 25% of the eligible voters. More important, the 47 million are in 19,000 parishes, of which 146 are Latin Catholic parishes. No religious group even approaches the Catholic community in numbers, in organization, and in the ability to deliver a message to the masses through the pulpit. In total the US has over 70 million Catholics and there are over 1.1 billion worldwide.
Only once in the past 30 years have the Catholics failed to support the winning candidate for president. Once reliably Democrat, the new Catholics are 41% Independent, up from 30% in the last election. The strength of the Catholics can be even more pronounced when looking at the election state by state. There are 7 swing states identified in this election, states that total 107 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
In 2004 Bush pulled 66% of the Catholic vote in Florida and 65% in Ohio to capture the states and the election. With the Hispanic population the fastest growing sector of the US population and being predominantly Catholic, especially in swing states like Florida and border states, it is doubtful any current polls are reflecting the potential vote accurately.
Of the seven recognized swing states Florida, a state with over 2.3 million Catholics, was decided in 2004 by 363,000 votes. Pennsylvania has 3.3 million Catholics and was decided by 145,000 votes. Ohio has 2.2 million Catholics and was decided by 118,000 votes. Virginia has 1.1 million Catholics and was decided by 262,000 votes. Missouri has 1.1 million Catholics and was decided by 196,000 votes while Minnesota has 1.2 million Catholics and was decided by 99,000 votes. Finally Nevada has 480,000 Catholics and was decided by 21,000 votes.
So what does that mean? It means the winning margin in those states equaled just 15% of the Catholic vote in Florida, 4% of the Catholics in Pennsylvania and Nevada, 5% in Ohio, 8% in Minnesota, 17% in Missouri and 23% in Virginia. In other words less than 25% of the Catholics in two states and less than 15% in all the rest were enough to swing the swing states. That does not fare well for the Obama and Biden ticket or the Democratic party in particular. Most certainly the tracking polls in those states have not been adjusted to reflect the significant strength of the Catholic vote.
The fall from grace of the Democrats can be traced to the increasing liberal platform of the party over the years and especially the radial left moves toward pro-abortion, gay rights and same sex marriages, the favorite issues of the far left that dominate the Democratic platform. Obama, Biden and Pelosi have all adopted positions on those issues opposed by the Catholic Church. More recently major blunders by House Speaker and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden have aggravated the schism and that could be a major factor in the election.
There are two ways to infuriate the Vatican, home of the Catholic Church. First is to adopt positions that reject the law of the Church. Second is to go on national television and invoke the names of church scholars and say those scholars support rejecting the law. Well Pelosi invoked the name of St. Augustine and Biden invoked the name of Thomas Aquinas, both on separate appearances on NBC Meet the Press where they grossly misrepresented the teaching of the church on abortion.
Such strategic blunders in the midst of an election campaign have cost the Obama ticket the support of the Vatican and the American Bishops and the television appearances of Biden and Pelosi attempting to redefine the teachings of the Catholic Church could result in the Church setting the record straight through the 19,000 parishes across the country. There is some evidence this has already begun as a pastoral letter condemning their efforts has already been issued on the subject. Will this schism between the Democratic ticket and the Catholic Church be felt at the ballot box? If so it could cost Obama the election.