I Luv McCain

Thank you

2008-11-04T20:03:00.001-08:00

Thank you John McCain. The writer thanks you for all your service to our country. You fought hard and I thank you. Please continue your hard work in making our country stronger in the US Senate.

Again, thank you Senator McCain.

Change

2008-11-03T03:56:00.000-08:00

From Richmond Times-Dispatch, Monday, July 7, 2008 ~

Dear Editor, "Times-Dispatch",

Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4 I celebrate America 's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.
On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba , and a few
months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I
happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just
part of the story, but I digress.
I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The
election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba
and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans
thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a
young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive.
When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and
denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him.
They never questioned who his friends were or what he really
believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the
poor and bring free medical care and education to all,
everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and
equality to all, everyone said, "Praise the Lord."
And when the young leader said, "I will be for change
and I'll bring you change"; everyone
yelled, "Viva Fidel!"
But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the
executioner's guns went silent, the people's guns
had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they
were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time
everyone received their free education, it was worth
nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late,
because they were now working for him. By the time the
change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a
couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the
change was over, more than a million people had taken to
boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.
Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader
who promised change without asking, what change? How will
you carry it out? What will it cost America ?
"C H A N G E" Would we?

Manuel Alvarez, Jr. Sandy Hook

John McCain vs Barak Obama Issue by Issue

2008-10-25T04:39:00.000-07:00

2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS

ISSUE:

Favors new drilling offshore:
John McCain : Yes
Barak Obama : No

Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it:
John McCain : Yes
Barak Obama : No

Served in the US Armed Forces:
John McCain : Yes
Barak Obama : No

Amount of time served in the US Senate:
John McCain : 22 YEARS
Barak Obama : 173 DAYS

Will institute a socialized national health care plan:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Supports gun ownership rights:
John McCain : Yes
Barak Obama : No

Supports homosexual marriage:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Voted against making English the official language:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals:
John McCain : No
Barak Obama : Yes

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

MCCAIN - 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA - 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)

DIVIDEND TAX

MCCAIN - 15% (no change)

OBAMA - 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.')

INCOME TAX

MCCAIN - (no changes)
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250

OBAMA - (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama, your taxes could almost double!

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OBAMA - Restore the inheritance tax
Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.

NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA
New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

You can verify the above at the following web sites:

http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.taxes.html
http://elections.foxnews.com/?s=proposed+taxes
http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/mccain_obama_offer_different_visions_on_taxes.html
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/barack_obama/
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/john_mccain/

FIVE DAYS OF THE OBAMA ACORN CONNECTION

2008-10-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

FIVE DAYS OF THE OBAMA ACORN CONNECTION

Day 1: Deep Roots

For Immediate Release

Contact: Press Office

Monday, October 20, 2008

703-650-5550

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, McCain-Palin 2008 campaign spokesman Ben Porritt released the following statement:

"While serving as the director of Project Vote, Barack Obama formed the roots of his political career alongside ACORN, which is currently under investigation in thirteen states for election fraud and is also under investigation by the FBI. As more information becomes clear about Obama's associations, Americans are realizing his decisions are made using a combination of poor judgment and blind ambition. It is imperative that Barack Obama fully disclose the specifics of his relationship with ACORN, allowing the American people to determine its merit in this contest."

The Facts

· Obama Started Working With ACORN In 1992, And Earlier This Year Said He Had Been Fighting Alongside ACORN His Entire Career

· Obama Worked As An Organizer For Project Vote, An ACORN Offshoot

· ACORN'S Website Lists Project Vote As An Allied Organization

As A Community Organizer, Obama Worked With ACORN

Obama: "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work." (Barack Obama 2008 Website, Accessed 10/8/08)

Obama Started Working With ACORN In 1992. "What's more, Obama worked as executive director of ACORN's voter-registration arm, Project Vote, in 1992. Joined by two other community organizers on Chicago's South Side, Obama conducted the voter-registration drive that helped elect Carol Moseley-Braun to the Senate that year." (Editorial, "Is ACORN Stealing The Election?" Investor's Business Daily, 10/8/08)

"Obama Worked As An Organizer For Project Vote, An Acorn Offshoot." "Early in his career, Obama worked as an organizer for Project Vote, an ACORN offshoot, and represented ACORN in legal actions, according to various published reports, including Associated Press articles. ACORN's political action committee endorsed Obama in the primary." (David M. Brown, "Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 8/22/08)

Time Magazine Described Project Vote As A "Non-Partisan Arm" Of ACORN. "David Leland [is] national director of Project Vote, a nonpartisan arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which claims it has registered more than 50,000 voters in the Columbus area." (Karen Tumulty and Perry Bacon, "Fighting For Every Last Vote," Time Magazine, 10/18/04)

To This Very Day, ACORN'S Website Lists Project Vote As An Allied Organization. (ACORN Website, Accessed 10/14/08)

Your hard work is paying off (a message from McCain Campaign)

2008-10-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporter,

Since launching our campaign's online phone bank, McCain-Palin supporters have made hundreds of thousands of calls to voters across the country in support of our ticket.

Your hard work is paying off. The latest polls show we are closing the gap with Senator Obama and as we head into the final two weeks of the campaign, every voter you contact on behalf of the campaign will bring us one step closer to victory on Election Day.

Last week, I emailed you about our weekly "Virtual Super Saturdays" and I want to remind you again to take a few moments out of your day today to make 20 calls for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Volunteers have always been the backbone of our campaign's efforts and in the final days of the race, we need you to pitch in and reach out to voters through our online phone bank.

Our online phone bank is easy to use; simply follow this link and choose the state where you would like to make calls. We'll provide the names, phone numbers and call scripts. Once you've completed your call, record the results and submit them.

It takes 20 minutes to make 20 calls, and by completing these calls, you'll be helping our campaign make a personal connection with voters across the country.

So, I encourage you to find 20 minutes today to take part in our "Virtual Super Saturday."

And remember to mark your calendar for next Saturday, October 25th. We're holding our final national event day,"McCain Nation Super Saturday" with a special conference call with John McCain. Senator McCain will give us an exclusive update from the campaign trail and take caller questions. If you haven't yet signed up to host or attend a "McCain Nation Super Saturday" event, please visit www.JohnMcCain.com/McCainNation to get started.

Thanks for your time and support and good luck with your calls today.

Sincerely,

Christian Ferry
Deputy Campaign Manager

Get in on the ground game

2008-10-16T19:58:00.001-07:00

Dear Supporter,

Last night, you saw John McCain win the final debate of the general election. On every issue, he proved he is ready to lead and ready to take this country in a new direction.

We know that John McCain is prepared to bring bold solutions to solve our nation's challenges. He'll fight for the "Joe the Plumbers," "Joe the Florists" and "Joe the Carpenters" of America to reduce taxes and allow more men and women to realize the American Dream. John McCain is the only candidate who has consistently put our country's needs above his own. Now, it's up to us now to make sure he wins on Election Day.

There's been a lot of talk in the media about the massive field operation Senator Obama has built with unlimited campaign funds. Our campaign is ready to match his operation, but we need you on board to do it.

As we enter the final weeks of the campaign, we're launching our major volunteer effort to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin. As a volunteer in your home state, you will be making a big difference in bringing the McCain-Palin ticket closer to victory.

Please follow this link to sign up for a volunteer shift. No matter what your schedule is, we have available shifts for each day leading up to November 4th. As a volunteer for our campaign, you will be provided with training, so no prior experience is needed.

There is a lot at stake in this election. As a volunteer for McCain-Palin, you can make a big impact in closing the gap in the polls and electing John McCain and Sarah Palin as our next president and vice president. Please follow this link to get involved today. Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
Christian Ferry
Deputy Campaign Manager

P.S. In addition to volunteering for our campaign, I'm asking you to visit the new website, www.RhetoricVsRecord.com. This site outlines the big differences between what Senator Obama says and what he does. Please take a few minutes to read through the site and pass it along to a few of your friends. Thank you.

Hey Joe, welcome to the world of socialism, Obama style

2008-10-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the hottest video in the country. Barack Obama flat out telling an undecided voter that he is gonna "Spread the Wealth," so that "those behind us have a chance at success." Instead of working hard and earning enough to buy a small business, Obama want hard working Americans to share their wealth with others. So America, continue to work hard, under Obama we will have country to feed.

Fight for our country

2008-10-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

My Friends,

I have been fortunate to serve and fight for our country for most of my life and as you know, I've never been one to do it from the sidelines.

There is much at stake in this election. In just a few short weeks, Americans will elect a new President and Congress and it's up to us to ensure they choose the right leaders with a record of reform.

McCain-Palin Victory 2008 helps fund the critical get-out-the-vote efforts to elect our ticket from top to bottom. My friend, I'm asking for your financial support today to ensure these efforts are fully funded.

We are in a serious economic crisis and we are facing enemies in this world who watch our every move. Our next president and Congress will need to take swift action. Our nation must elect leaders who have experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action for our country and that my friends is what our team of reformers is offering you if we are elected.

But we'll never be elected without your immediate help. We need your generous contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more today if we are to succeed in our efforts. With a contribution of $75 or more today, we'll rush you an exclusive McCain-Palin Victory 2008 lapel pin to show your support for our team.

Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid are proposing massive new spending, and what they won't tell you is that they can't spend this money without raising your taxes. The Obama-Biden Democrats' stated intention is to "spread the wealth around." But you and I know that's just code for a larger tax burden on you and your family.

But our team of reformers knows that raising taxes makes a bad economy worse. And when we're elected on November 4th, we're going to start making the government live on a budget, just like you do.

America is a great country and we are in a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. I've been fighting for our country for most of my life and I want to continue along with fellow reformers. Your immediate support today will allow us to continue the fight for our shared values.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

John McCain

P.S. What America needs most right now is leadership from reformers with a record of accomplishments. I'm prepared to join Governor Palin and other reformers around the country to fight for you and your family. And I'm asking you to join our team today with a donation of any amount you can afford. If you're able to give $75 or more today, we'll send you an exclusive McCain-Palin Victory 2008 lapel pin to show your support for our ticket. Thank you.

What the Obama-Biden Democrats won't tell you

2008-10-13T18:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporter,

We're coming down to the final stretch of the campaign. Each day leading up to November 4th plays a critical role in securing a Victory for our team of reformers. And I'll get straight to my point - if we're going to win we need your immediate support.

Will you join the McCain-Palin Victory 2008 team today during these critical final days?

The Obama-Biden Democrats and their liberal, allied interest groups are spending more than $1 billion to defeat our ticket in critical races across the country. They're flooding the airwaves and stuffing mailboxes with misleading information, and in some cases flat out lies about us.

The truth is that far-left groups in this country will do anything to help the Obama-Biden Democrats win the White House and maintain their majorities in Congress. And last week, we found out they're going even further to win.

The left-wing activist group, ACORN, is now under investigation for voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. ACORN's political action committee has endorsed Barack Obama and Senator Obama himself has said, "I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career." The Obama Campaign even paid more than $800,000 to an ACORN affiliate for "get out the vote activity." And now we find out that ACORN is suspected of voter registration fraud.

But, the Obama-Biden Democrats would rather sweep these facts under the rug and use their mainstream media allies to bury this story. But we can't let that happen. We can't allow leftist groups like ACORN to steal this election.

That's why McCain-Palin Victory 2008 has set out to ensure a fair election and I'm asking you to join us today. Will you follow this link immediately to give $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or more to our effort?

McCain-Palin Victory 2008 helps fund our get-out-the-vote efforts in states across the country. We're working day and night to ensure this election is fair and we're working to elect the ticket that has a record of reform leadership.

Our team of reformers is ready to lead. We're ready to tackle issues affecting your family. But we'll get never get there without your support. Will you join our team in the final stretch before Election Day? With your help, I know we'll ensure this election is conducted in a fair manner. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Governor Sarah Palin

P.S. We've always known the Obama-Biden Democrats will do anything to win this November, but we didn't know how far their allies would go. The Obama-supported, far-left group, ACORN, has been accused of voter registration fraud in a number of battleground states. Our team, through McCain-Palin Victory 2008 is working to ensure that this election is conducted fairly. With your immediate financial support, we'll be successful. Please join our team for a fair election today. Thank you.

with friends like this?

2008-10-10T04:32:00.000-07:00

William Charles "Bill" Ayers - a domestic terrorist:

Ayers became involved in the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).^[7] He rose to national prominence as an SDS leader in 1968 and 1969. As head of an SDS regional group, the "Jesse James Gang", Ayers made decisive contributions to the Weatherman orientation toward militancy.^[5]The group Ayers headed in Detroit, Michigan became one of the earliest gatherings of what became the Weatherman. Between the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the June 1969 SDS convention, Ayers became a prominent leader of the group, which arose as a result of a schism in SDS.^[5]"During that time his infatuation with street fighting grew and he developed a language of confrontational militancy that became more and more pronounced over the year [1969]", disaffected former Weatherman member Cathy Wilkerson wrote in 2001. Ayers had previously become a roommate of Terry Robbins, a fellow militant, Wilkerson wrote. Robbins would later be killed while making a bomb.^[8]In June 1969, the Weatherman took control of the SDS at its national convention, where Ayers was elected Education Secretary.^[5] Later in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to riot police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot confrontation between labor supporters and the police.^[9] The blast broke almost 100 windows and blew pieces of the statue onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway.^[10] (The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, and blown up again by other Weathermen on October 6, 1970.^[11]^[10] Rebuilding it yet again, the city posted a 24-hour police guard to prevent another blast.^[10]) Ayers participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago in October 1969, and in December was at the "War Council" meeting in Flint, Michigan. Larry Grathwohl, an FBI informant in the Weatherman group from the fall of 1969 to the spring of 1970, thought that "Ayers, along with Bernardine Dohrn, probably had the most authority within the Weatherman".^{[12] - from wikipedia

Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Barack Obama's former pastor. Obama only chose to disassociate himself with Rev. Wright after he concluded that Rev. Wright would be hurtful to his rise to power. Rev. Wright who has been spewing hate for years as Barack's pastor, is now being denounced by the hopeful Presidential nominee.

Let's watch some of Obama's longtime spiritual advisor's greatest hits:}

Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for President, first met Wright in the late 1980s, while he was working as a community organizer in Chicago before attending Harvard Law School.^[25] Wright officiated at the wedding ceremony of Barack and Michelle Obama, as well as their children's baptism.^[5] The title of Obama's memoir, The Audacity of Hope, was inspired by one of Wright's sermons.^[25]^[5]

Wright was scheduled to give the public invocation before Obama's presidential announcement, but Obama withdrew the invitation the night before the event.^[26] Wright wrote a rebuttal letter to the editor disputing the characterization of the account as reported in an article in The New York Times.^[27]

In 2007 Wright was appointed to Barack Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee, a group of over 170 national black religious leaders who supported Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination;^[28] however, it was announced in March 2008 that Wright was no longer serving as a member of this group.^{[29] - wikipedia}

^{Yup these are the friends that Barack Obama has kept over the past 20 years. With friends like these, who needs enemies.

This November, vote for the change with a true plan, vote for an American Hero, VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN!}

Our Path to Victory by John McCain

2008-10-09T16:09:00.000-07:00

My Friends,

During Tuesday's town hall debate in Nashville, I told a retired Navy chief in the audience that everything I ever learned about leadership I learned from a chief petty officer in the Navy. My career in the United States Navy has had a lasting impact on my life and the lessons I learned continue to guide me today.

The naval term "steady strain" has become a constant mantra throughout my life. It references the need to keep lines between ships steady to avoid a sudden jerk or movement that could easily snap the line. We're facing great challenges as a nation and we must keep a "steady strain," because it is not only essential at sea, but in life and in politics.

I strongly believe a "steady strain," made possible by the grassroots organization we've built across the country, is the path to our victory on November 4th.

And with you on board as a member of our team, I know we will win.

Tomorrow marks 25 days until Election Day. The final weeks of this campaign will present new challenges and new opportunities for our team and we will take advantage of this. The next 25 days of the campaign are critical if we want to win.

That's why I'm asking you to make an immediate contribution of $25 or more to fund our efforts to win important races across the country on Election Day.

While we may be weeks away from Election Day, voters have already begun casting early votes and are receiving their absentee ballots in the mail. This is our opportunity to get our message out to the undecided voters.

Our ticket has a plan to strengthen the economy, keep homeowners in their homes, lighten your tax burden and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The Obama-Biden Democrats will raise your taxes, increase our dependency on foreign oil and take our country down a dangerous path.

Our grassroots team is already hard at work and will only grow. But we need funds for our get-out-the-vote effort. We must raise millions and that's why I'm asking you to give whatever you can give - whether it's $50 or $500 - every dollar is put to work to elect our ticket from top to bottom on Election Day.

Make no mistake; our ticket is the one who will bring reform to Washington. We are the ones with the record of reform and we are the ones with the leadership necessary to guide our country in these uncertain times.

Politics is certainly not a business of calm seas, but rather of rough storms. There are many of us who have weathered these storms before and we know how critical it is to keep a "steady strain" to win on November 4th.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

John McCain

P.S. Tomorrow marks 25 days until Election Day. Our grassroots team of supporters is out in every state in the country working on get-out-the-vote efforts. Your immediate support is needed to fund these efforts. Will you make a generous donation of $25 or more right now?

Because the McCain-Palin Campaign is participating in the presidential public funding system, it may not receive contributions for any candidate's election. However, federal law allows the McCain-Palin Campaign's Compliance Fund to defray legal and accounting compliance costs and preserve the Campaign's public grant for media, mail, phones, and get-out-the-vote programs. Contributions to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 will go to the Compliance Fund, and to participating party committees for Victory 2008 programs.

Fear

2008-10-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

I am convinced Barack Obama has nothing behind his words. His charismatic delivery of empty words has the people believing in his platform of change. Obama has people believing that he is the change needed in America. He has traveled across this great land of ours preaching fear and capitalizing on the bad economy that he and his liberal democrat "cronies" helped cause.

Obama has traveled near and far criticizing the "failed economic policies" of the Bush Administration. Obama has built up enough fear in this country that people hungry of a change will believe just about anything as long as they don't have to fear anymore.

In his travels, we have yet to hear the truth from Obama. The truth that he and his buddies in Congress passed legislation to create more affordable housing for those who chose to live beyond their means. Don't believe me? Check this out.

We don't have to live in fear. We can't be fooled by words promising hope and smooth deliveries. This is our country, we can not turn it over to a man with questionable character, judge his character by the company he keeps: a former domestic terrorist in Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, ACORN, questionable campaign finance, is this is truly who we want at the head of our country?

Wake up America, you are being fooled and made to live in fear. America if you want change, vote for the man who for 35 years has been changing Washington, vote for the man who fought and will continue to fight for this country, vote for a man who has a clear plan for America, VOTE FOR JOHN MCCAIN!

Sarah Palin said has said it best, "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are leaders, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

Fact Check Time

2008-10-09T03:51:00.000-07:00

OBAMA: Said McCain's proposal to give people a tax credit in exchange for treating employers' health insurance contributions as taxable wages amounts to "what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away."

THE FACTS: Obama's suggestion that McCain's health care plan is a wash for families is misleading. McCain offers families a $5,000 tax credit to help them buy health insurance. The corresponding increase in taxable wages would result in a much smaller cost than the value of the tax credit, at least at first. Over time, the value of the tax credit may diminish as premiums rise. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that McCain's plan would increase the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years - mainly because it would lead to less tax revenue coming in, meaning it is a true tax break overall.

OBAMA: "Actually I'm cutting more than I'm spending so that it will be a net spending cut."

THE FACTS: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama would increase spending by $425 billion over four years and reduce spending by $144 billion for a net increase in the deficit of $281 billion. Obama has said he'll cut pork-barrel programs and the costs of the war in Iraq to pay for his programs - as well as raise taxes on the wealthy - but the specifics of his new spending plans outweigh the few spending cuts he's identified.

OBAMA: Blamed some of the problem of terrorism in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region on Bush administration policy in Pakistan, saying "We can't coddle, as we did, a dictator, give him billions of dollars and then he's making peace treaties with the Taliban and militants."

THE FACTS: Obama oversimplifies ex-President Pervez Musharraf's approach to making peace deals. In fact, the U.S.-backed Musharraf focused more heavily on military action, launching blistering attacks on the militants at times and negotiating peace deals with them at others. Obama also ignores the fact that Pakistan's newly elected civilian government, also U.S.-supported, is seeking the same kind of peace deals and has stepped back from heavy-handed tactics that were pursued by the Musharraf government .

OBAMA: "I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain, that essentially said that we should strip away regulations, consumer protections, let the market run wild, and prosperity would rain down on all of us."

THE FACTS: McCain has indeed favored less regulation over the years but supported tighter rules and accountability on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years before the start of a financial crisis prompted in part by those giant mortgage underwriters. Obama was not a leader in that unsuccessful effort. Some of the current problems can be traced to legislation passed in 1999 that lifted many regulations over the financial industry. That deregulation was championed by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, a McCain supporter, but also by President Clinton, who signed the legislation, and by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now a top Obama economic adviser.

McCain Looks to Rise Again

2008-10-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a great article from the Washington Post. John McCain still has a chance, but the time to act is now.

By Dan Balz
NASHVILLE -- It was a late night for John McCain's campaign -- a post-debate repast of karaoke until the wee hours of the rain-soaked morning. They sang neither in celebration nor to drown their sorrows. Tuesday's debate did not fundamentally alter the race.

Instant polls judged Barack Obama the winner. The post-debate chatter on the cable channels tended to favor Obama. Even reliably conservative voices on CNN -- Alex Castellanos, Leslie Sanchez and William Bennett -- found it hard to award the evening to McCain. When the polls are heading in one direction, conventional wisdom follows.

Which is why McCain needs the numbers to move, even a bit, the other way. He's like the stock markets. Lack of confidence breeds retreat. He needs an injection of fresh political confidence in his presidential candidacy.

Mark Salter, the candidate's alter ego and confidant, was in the lobby of McCain's hotel Wednesday, neither grim nor giddy but still shaking out cobwebs. "We've been dead before," he said.

He would know, having weathered McCain's long, wild ride through the primaries and now the general election. But is there a plan? "We can't die again," he said.

Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke couldn't have said it better. Try something and see if it works. If that isn't sufficient, try more. McCain's answer in the debate was a $300 plan to stabilize the housing market by buying up and renegotiating bad mortgages.

The overnight focus groups conducted by McCain's campaign offered a little comfort, particularly compared with those by news organizations. The voters assembled by the campaign, said one senior official, did not see an Obama victory. Nor did they apparently see a McCain triumph, he said. These voters thought both candidates did well and now it's on to the next round.

Mike DuHaime, McCain political director, said internal campaign polling does not make the electoral map look as bad as some public polls suggest. For example: Asked why, if he had given up on Michigan, McCain had not given up on Iowa, a state that looks strong for Obama in public polls, DuHamie said because their own polling has Obama's lead in low single digits.

He said the upper Midwest battlegrounds -- Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota -- seem to be moving as a block. They looked bad before the Republican convention, but as of now, he believes there's no reason for McCain to give up on them. The Democrats believe otherwise. They see all three states firming up, although Wisconsin remains the most competitive.

Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, told reporters after the debate that he still likes his candidate's situation. Better, he said, to be defending red states than having to convert blue states to win. He has lots of them to defend right now -- Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and North Carolina.

DuHaime also said there is positive evidence that McCain is catching up to Obama in the battle to mobilize voters. The past two weeks, he said, McCain's campaign has contacted more voters, by phone or door-to-door, than the vaunted Bush machine did in comparable weeks four years ago. One week, he said, the increase was 40 percent over last year.

Part of that is the Palin effect. The selection of Sarah Palin brought a surge of new volunteers into the McCain campaign. Once processed into the system, they are now helping to expand the reach of McCain's phone banks and street-level canvassing.

They are helping to produce mountains of data -- the results of every call are entered into a database overnight for officials at the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign to parse. When combined with other data, the McCain team can see how their candidate is improving or slipping among different categories of voters, sliced every which way through microtargeting analysis.

What to do? Scott Reed, who ran Bob Dole's campaign 12 years ago and knows what happens when a candidate falls behind, said McCain should offer a more comprehensive economic plan that deals with the current crisis -- and "stay focused on Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin." Florida, he added, "is a must win."

Tad Devine, who was at the center of the past two losing Democratic campaigns, argued that McCain now is in worse shape than either Al Gore or John F. Kerry at this time in their campaigns.

Devine offered a clinical strategy that he said is McCain's best hope: forget the Kerry states (including New Hampshire), as well as Iowa and New Mexico and put everything into Ohio and Florida.

"To do that, he must attack Obama, with ads that work in those places, down to the individual markets," he wrote in a message. "So in the panhandle in Florida, they should attack on culture/values. In the middle of the state, on taxes. In the south (not Miami -- too expensive) on economy, that Obama will hurt small business. This should be a market by market strategy, not a national strategy. Same in Ohio. He needs to get those two back, and the only way to do it is with negative ads in base markets, and economic ads in swing markets."

John Weaver, who once was McCain's chief strategist, said McCain needs global movement. "There are too many problematic states for the campaign to try to play prevent defense in any one, which doesn't usually work even when you're ahead," he wrote. "The campaign must close the gap dramatically and quickly on dealing with the economy in a way that connects with and gives hope to a broad range of Americans -- and not just focus on Obama's deficiencies. This is the only way -- in a big election -- to close the polling gap and change the narrative. These coming days are the last opportunity Senator McCain has to show the American people the inspirational, empathetic leader we know him to be."

Tuesday's debate did not really answer the question many Americans are asking. Are either of these candidates truly up to tackling the problems the next president will inherit?

Both have struggled with economic issues throughout their campaigns and it showed again Tuesday night. For the second consecutive debate, neither fully stepped up to the moment of a country in an economic crisis, with voters deeply anxious about their jobs, mortgages, retirement savings and health care.

Neither found a way to explain where we are as cogently and clearly as the next president will be asked to do. Both played the blame game over who was more complicit in allowing the problems to develop; both talked about ways to prevent the next crisis when resolving the current crisis is the nation's real priority.

Obama was calm at a time when calm is valuable. But he was focused on winning the debate and the election. That's smart politics but in a month he could be the president-elect, and then the whole mess will be on his shoulders. Does he have the passion and the sense of urgency to restore confidence as Franklin D. Roosevelt did when he assumed the presidency in 1933?

McCain was better in this debate than the first -- more engaged with his rival and engaged with those asking the questions. He offered his mortgage plan to show he gets the problems people are feeling, but he did so in a way that left lots of questions. He didn't drive the biggest new piece of his message. And, while he insisted he knows how to solve the problems facing the economy, he provided no evidence.

But where Obama has used the first two debates effectively is to persuade voters that he is as capable as McCain when it comes to taking over the presidency.

McCain's strategy is grounded in the need to disqualify his opponent. Without that, the underlying structure of the race favors the Democrat. But after two debates, in head-to-head competition, Obama has not come off as the callow youth to McCain's steady hand. Even a draw hurts McCain.

McCain made a good case for himself and was about as pointed as a candidate can be in a town hall setting in taking on his opponent. But nothing in the first two debates has contributed to disqualifying Obama -- and certainly the public reaction confirms that.

The final debate on Oct. 15 could be the best of the three -- just the two candidates at a table with CBS's Bob Schieffer as moderator. The topic will be all domestic issues and it will be an opportunity to bore in on both candidates in ways the first two debates have not allowed.

In the meantime, McCain will need to gather fresh momentum, somehow. But the narrative has turned sharply against him and his every move is questioned. If he gets tough, it's described as desperation. If he deals only with the economy, it plays to the Democrats' natural advantage. And he'll need a sterling performance in the final debate.

But inside the McCain campaign there is resolve, which comes from the candidate himself. Whatever difficult days lie ahead, they believe they have seen worse. McCain put it best in his closing statement Tuesday:

"I know what it's like in dark times," he said. "I know what it's like to have to fight to keep one's hope going through difficult times. I know what it's like to rely on others for support and courage and love in tough times. I know what it's like to have your comrades reach out to you and your neighbors and your fellow citizens and pick you up and put you back in the fight."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/08/mccain_looks_to_rise_again.html

Homeowners in crisis need relief now (a message from John McCain)

2008-10-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

My Friends,

Millions of Americans on Main Street are feeling the effects of our current economic crisis largely brought on by corruption and greed at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Wall Street. Our next president must come into office with a plan to address the very root the failing housing market.

Last night, during my debate with Senator Obama, I announced my plan to fix the root of our problem and I'd like to share a little more with you today.

If elected president, I will direct my Treasury Secretary to implement an American Homeownership Resurgence Plan to keep families in their homes, avoid foreclosures, save failing neighborhoods, stabilize the housing market and attack the roots of our financial crisis.

America's families are bearing a heavy burden from falling housing prices, mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures, and a weak economy. It is important that those families who have worked hard enough to finance homeownership not have that dream crushed under the weight of the wrong mortgage.

For those that cannot make inflated payments or their mortgage exceeds the value of their home, mortgages must be re-structured to put losses on the books and put homeowners in manageable mortgages.

This Resurgence Plan would purchase mortgages directly from homeowners and mortgage servicers, and replace them with manageable, fixed-rate mortgages that will keep families in their homes.

By purchasing the existing, failing mortgages the resurgence plan will eliminate uncertainty over defaults, support the value of mortgage-backed derivatives and alleviate risks that are freezing financial markets.

I am ready to lead our country out of this financial crisis and I am ready to work with anyone and everyone who will help. Together, I know we can work together to find solutions for these challenging times. Please do your part today and spread the word about my new plan by forwarding this email on to your neighbors, friends, family and coworkers. Thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,

John McCain

P.S. Homeownership represents the very core of our American economic system. This is not the time for politics. We must move aggressively to provide relief and stability for all Americans.

Remarks By John McCain In Albuquerque, NM (Important points in bold red)

2008-10-07T04:12:00.000-07:00

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the McCain-Palin 2008 rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

In less than a month, the American people will make a choice on where they want this country to go, and who they trust to lead us in a time of war and economic crisis. The time for debating and electioneering is drawing to a close. Soon it will be the time for choosing.

Today we have seen a reminder of the importance of that choice. The action Congress took last week to address our financial crisis was a tourniquet, but not a permanent solution. Today we are seeing the stock market fall, and the credit crisis spread to other parts of the world. Our economy is still hurting -- working families are worried about the price of groceries, the price of gas, keeping their jobs and paying their mortgage -- further action is needed. We need to restore confidence in our economy and in our government.

Washington is still on the wrong track and we still need change. The status quo is not on the ballot. We are going to see change in Washington. The question is: in what direction will we go? Will our country be a better place under the leadership of the next president -- a more secure, prosperous, and just society? Will you be better off, in the jobs you hold now and in the opportunities you hope for? Will your sons and daughters grow up in the kind of country you wish for them, rising in the world and finding in their own lives the best of America? And which candidate's experience -- in government and in life -- makes him a more reliable leader for our country and commander in chief for our troops? Who is ready to lead? In a time of trouble and danger for our country, who will put our country first?

I set out on my own campaign for president many months ago. I promised at the beginning to be straight with the American people, knowing that even those who don't agree with me on everything would expect at least that much. I didn't just show up out of nowhere, after all -- America knows me. You know my strengths and my faults. You know my story and my convictions. And though familiarity in politics can be both helpful to a candidate, or not so helpful, it does at least fill out the picture and answer the essential questions. You need to know who you're putting in the White House -- where the candidate came from and what he or she believes. And you need to know now, before it is time to choose.

In 21 months, during hundreds of speeches, town halls and debates, I have kept my promise to level with you about my plans to reform Washington and get this country moving again. As a senator, I've seen the corrupt ways of Washington in wasteful spending and other abuses of power, and as president I'm going to end them -- whatever it takes. I will propose and sign into law reforms to bring tax relief to the middle class and help to businesses so they can create jobs. I will get the rising cost of food and gas under control. I will help families keep their home, and help students struggling to pay for college. I will make health care more accessible and affordable. I will impose a spending freeze on all but the most vital functions of government. I will review every agency of the federal government, improve those that need to be improved and eliminate those that aren't working for the American people. I will confront th e ten trillion-dollar debt that the federal government has run up, and balance the federal budget by the end of my term in office.

This is the agenda I have set before my fellow citizens. And the same standards of clarity and candor must now be applied to my opponent. Even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don't know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign.

We have all heard what he has said, but it is less clear what he has done or what he will do. What Senator Obama says today and what he has done in the past are often two different things. He has often changed his positions in this campaign, and the best way to determine where he would really take this country is to examine where he has tried to take it in the past.

My opponent has invited serious questioning by announcing a few weeks ago that he would quote -- "take off the gloves." Since then, whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar.

Rather than answer his critics, Senator Obama will try to distract you from noticing that he never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked. But let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I don't need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician.

My opponent's touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who's already authored two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book. It's as if somehow the usual rules don't apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there's always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another barrage of angry insults.

Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?

This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.

Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, "a good idea." Well, Senator Obama, that "good idea" has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

To hear him talk now, you'd think he'd always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign.

He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them. Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didn't he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He won't tell you, but you deserve an answer.

Even after he refused to lift a finger to prevent this crisis, when the crisis hit, he was missing in action. He didn't start making calls to round up votes until after the rescue bill failed in the House and the markets crashed. We continue to see the price of delay today as the markets continue to fall. Today the DOW has fallen below 10,000. And yet, members of his own party said they felt no pressure to vote for the bill. Why didn't Senator Obama work to pass this bill from the start? Why did he let it fail and drag out this crisis for a full week before doing a thing to help pass it?

Again on taxes, we see a difference between what Senator Obama says today, what he said yesterday and what he has actually done. Over the course of this campaign, he has had many different plans to raise your taxes. During the Democratic primary, he promised to double taxes on every American with a dividend or an investment. He promised to raise payroll taxes. He promised higher taxes on electricity. Now, Senator Obama claims he will give 95 percent of Americans tax relief. He actually promised the same thing when he was running for Senate in Illinois, but once elected he never introduced legislation to do so. Instead, he voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised to raise taxes on people making just 42,000 dollars a year. At the time, he even said his vote was intended to get "our nation's priorities back on track." If he's such a defender of the middle class, why did he vote to raise their taxes? Whatever ha ppened to the tax relief he promised them when he was a candidate for the Senate? And why should middle class Americans trust him to keep promises he has already broken?

Senator Obama and I both have differences with how President Bush has handled the economy. But he thinks taxes are too low, and I think spending is too high. The government's out of control spending has resulted in a weaker dollar, raising the cost of groceries and gasoline, and killing jobs.

I will veto pork barrel legislation and cut wasteful government spending. Senator Obama has a different plan. According to third party estimates, he will increase government spending by over 860 billion dollars. He has denied it, but he has refused to tell you how much he does plan to spend. What is the total of his increased spending? Americans deserve to know just how much more of their money Senator Obama intends to spend, and how much more debt he plans to burden them with.

Senator Obama has also criticized earmark spending, those wasteful pork barrel projects stuck in spending bills behind closed doors. And yet, despite his talk on the campaign trail, his actual record is full of requests for earmark projects. In his three short years in the Senate, he has requested nearly a billion dollars in pork projects for his state -- a million dollars for every day he's been in office. Far from fighting earmarks in Congress, Senator Obama has been an eager participant in this corrupt system. In one instance, he sought more than 3 million dollars for a new projector at a planetarium in his hometown. Coincidentally, the chairman of that planetarium pledged to raise more than $200,000 for Senator Obama's campaign. We don't know if they ever discussed the money for the planetarium, and no one has asked Senator Obama. But even the appearance of this kind of insider-dealing disgusts Americans. I'm going to put a stop to that, my friends, if I'm President.

I have made every single donor to my campaign publicly available, while Senator Obama has taken in over 200 million dollars from undisclosed sources. We have already seen the potential for fraud because of his refusal to disclose his donors. His campaign had to return $33,000 in illegal foreign funds from Palestinian donors, and this weekend, we found out about another $28,000 in illegal donations. Why has Senator Obama refused to disclose the people who are funding his campaign? Again, the American people deserve answers.

On health care, Senator Obama has been misleading you about my plan to give you more money for health care, and he has been equally misleading about his own plans. He has said his goal is a single payer system where government is in charge of health care and bureaucrats stand between you and your doctor. Under the plan he has proposed, he will fine families that don't have the kind of health insurance that Senator Obama tells them to purchase. He will fine employers who do not offer the health insurance that he thinks they should offer.

What he doesn't say, and what nobody has asked, is how big his fines will be. What he doesn't want you to know is that with a small fine, his plan will encourage companies to just pay the fine, drop existing health care coverage for their employees and leave them with only one real option: government run health care.

Who is the real Senator Obama? Is he the candidate who promises to cut middle class taxes, or the politician who voted to raise middle class taxes? Is he the candidate who talks about regulation or the politician who took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turned a blind eye as they ran our economy into a ditch?

Is he the candidate who promises change, or is he the politician who has bought into everything that is wrong with Washington? We can't change the system with someone who's never fought the system.

Washington is on the wrong track and I'm going to set it right. The American people know my record. They know I am going to change Washington, because I've done it before. They know I'm going to reform our broken institutions in Washington and on Wall Street because I've done it before. They know I'm going to deliver relief to the middle class, because that's what I've done.

You don't have to hope that things will change when you vote for me. You know things will change, because I have been fighting for change in Washington my whole career. I've been fighting for you my whole life. That's what I'm going to do as President of the United States. Fight for you and put the government back on the side of the people.

Thank you.

Call for Volunteers from the McCain Campaign

2008-10-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Supporter,

The McCain-Palin campaign is now recruiting volunteers for the final weeks of the campaign and your help is needed.

Volunteers on the ground are crucial to our efforts to get-out-the-vote in the all-important battleground states. Senator Obama's campaign has spent millions hiring paid staff to work in their offices making phone calls and knocking on doors across these states. We need your help to combat their efforts and elect the McCain-Palin ticket on Election Day.

Whatever your schedule is, there are volunteer opportunities for those of you who can dedicate a few weeks, a few days and even a few hours. As a volunteer for our campaign, you will be helping our get-out-the-vote strategy by going door-to-door and making phone calls to voters. Volunteer training will be provided, so no prior experience is needed.

Please follow this link to sign up as a volunteer for McCain-Palin 2008.

I cannot stress how crucial it is for you to volunteer your time for John McCain and Sarah Palin. All of our efforts to elect them as our next President and Vice President are coming down to the final weeks of this campaign. With your help, we will elect the ticket who is ready to lead in Washington and will always put the needs of our country before their own. Please sign up to volunteer today. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Bill Bloomfield
Director of Volunteers

P.S. If you have friends, neighbors, family or co-workers interested in volunteering, please forward this email on and encourage them to sign up as a volunteer. Thank you!

Barak Obama and Joe Biden Responsible Fiscal Spending?

2008-10-05T06:14:00.000-07:00

Obama and Biden have been running around this county talking about the economy and Bush's failed fiscal policies. Well it is no wonder this country is growing its debt. Check below for the biggest pigs in congress.

Transcript:

Greg Jarrett, Fox: You focused on two things really as I understand it, earmarks, and we will get to it in a moment, but wasteful spending talk to us about how the candidates break down on this.

Tom Schatz, CAGW: There is a long track record in both cases, some of which goes to Senator Obama in the Illinois Legislature. We do not analyze the states. But just on the votes in 2007, Senator Obama voted correctly only 10% of the time, and Senator McCain voted 11 out of the 35 times. He did vote correctly every time. His lifetime rating 88% is the sixth-highest in the Senate. Senator Obama’s lifetime rating is 18% in the years that he has been a Senator. So there is a vast difference on the question of spending and taxes and those results are consistent with other analyses and organizations that track all of these various votes.

Jarrett: Is Obama at the bottom?

Schatz: He is not quite at that the bottom. Actually, Senator Biden is at the bottom. He has a zero rating in 2007. But Senator Obama is pretty close at 10%.

Jarrett: So Biden would be the most wasteful in your judgment, and again you are a non-partisan group, would be the most wasteful Senator?

Schatz: He wasn’t the only one. There were 13 Senators with a zero rating, but he was one of those that failed to vote a single time to cut waste or cut taxes are even preserve tax cuts.

Jarrett: And again, we are out of time, but John McCain, zero earmarks. Right?

Schatz: That is it. Zero.

Jarrett: Big goose egg. I mean that is amazing in Congress.

Schatz: It is difficult to say no, but he is one of the few who has.

______________________________________________________________

Pork in the Presidential Race
Posted on August 28, 2008 by Alexa Moutevelis

CCAGW’s (Concerned Citizens Against Government Waste) 2007 Congressional Ratings came out yesterday and you may be wondering how the presidential nominees did.

• Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) 2007 rating was 10 percent, making his lifetime score 18 percent. The 2008 Congressional Pig Book contained 53 earmarks worth $97.4 million for Sen. Obama, including $1,648,850 for the Shedd Aquarium.

• Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) received the worst possible rating in 2007 with 0 percent, while his lifetime rating is 22 percent. According to the Pig Book, Sen. Biden had 70 earmarks for a total of $119.7 million in fiscal year 2008, including $246,100 for the Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

• Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) received a score of 100* percent and has a lifetime rating of 88, has never requested nor received a single earmark, and has pledged to veto any spending bill that contains any earmarks.

*Sen. McCain was only present for 11 of the 35 Senate votes that CCAGW tallied. Therefore, he was not eligible for the Taxpayer Super Hero Award

Response

2008-10-05T05:14:00.000-07:00

I received a comment on my last post that I decided to address in a full post. Here is the comment I received: "if Mccain has the intelligence to run our country, then why did he graduate number 794 out of 799 people in his Naval Academy class?" - anonymous reader.

First off, does John McCain hold the same exact degree as the person who graduated first in his class? Did he have to pass the same curriculum? Second, you want to base your vote for President of the

United States

on a class rank? What does class rank have to do with experience and leadership? John McCain has over 50 years experience since his graduation from the Naval Academy. John McCain has served his country well and has the experience and leadership needed to change the course of our country. John McCain has spent the last fifty years fighting for this country. John McCain is a war hero and a champion of the people in the Senate. During the past two weeks, when our national was headed in financial disaster, who suspended all campaign activities to go back to Washington to help work out a plan? Who was vocal about how the campaign for president was secondary to the fiscal stability of our country? Where was Barack Obama during the last two weeks? Obama is not a hero of the people. Barack cares about Barack. He is not in this for his country, he is in this for himself and his pals. This is evident by in which the nature of his rise to power. Barack is a FRESHMAN Senator for ILL. He was in the senate all 143 days before he started his run for the White House. What record has he amassed in the Senate? What has Barack done for this country? Can you name one piece of legislation with Barack Obama's name to it?

We all agree that the United States of America needs a change and a new direction. But, is Barack the leader we need? Do we need someone who in his 143 days of being a Senator has amassed one of the highest levels of pork barrel spending in the Senate? (see my next post on pork) Obama isn't the change we need, he doesn't provide the leadership we need, and he most definitely does not have the experience we need.

Two ways you can help right now (an email from the McCain Campaign)

2008-10-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Friends,

Millions of people across the country have joined the grassroots effort to elect John McCain and Sarah Palin as our next President and Vice President. Many of you have attended town hall meetings, rallies and other campaign events and want to know how you can help the McCain-Palin ticket.

There are two ways you can help right now - making calls through our online phone bank and recruiting your friends and family to get involved in our campaign.

Make Phone Calls: With our online phone bank, it's never been easier to volunteer. If you can take 20 minutes out of your day today to make calls for the McCain-Palin campaign, you can make a big difference. Choose the state where you would like to make calls, use the call script on your computer screen, and record the results online. It's that simple.

Recruit Friends: This is going to be a close election. Some experts predict it will be one of the closest elections in our country's history. By spreading the word about your support for John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are directly helping our campaign expand our grassroots network of supporters. Start recruiting your friends by following this link.

Remember, you are the most persuasive spokesperson for John McCain and Sarah Palin to your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. That's why I'm asking you to make calls and recruit your friends by telling them why you support McCain-Palin, and why they should too.

We appreciate all of your hard work.

Sincerely,

Christian Ferry
Deputy Campaign Manager

Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

2008-10-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Obama, ACORN, and the Current Crisis - From the Weekly Standard Blog at www.weeklystandard.com

The extent to which Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama himself are avoiding blame for this crisis despite symbiotic relationships with those who caused it is truly amazing.

The nerve with which they hold forth about "unbridled capitalism" and "deregulation" while conveniently forgetting their culpability in government interference in the market, which first pressured banks (via Community Reinvestment Act) and then incentivized banks (via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to make risky loans to people with troubled credit history.

Obama has been heavily involved with a certain group of community organizers that encouraged such behavior since the very beginning of his career— ACORN. I'm going to pull out a little bit of Stanley Kurtz's piece on this connection, but read the whole thing. The details are devastating, even if you know the basic outline already:

[Prominent Chicago ACORN activist Madeline] Talbott continued her effort to, as she put it, drag banks "kicking and screaming" into high-risk loans. A September 1993 story in The Chicago Sun-Times presents her as the leader of an initiative in which five area financial institutions (including two of her former targets, now plainly cowed - Bell Federal Savings and Avondale Federal Savings) were "participating in a $55 million national pilot program with affordable-housing group ACORN to make mortgages for low- and moderate-income people with troubled credit histories."
What made this program different from others, the paper added, was the participation of Fannie Mae - which had agreed to buy up the loans. "If this pilot program works," crowed Talbott, "it will send a message to the lending community that it's OK to make these kind of loans."

Well, the pilot program "worked," and Fannie Mae's message that risky loans to minorities were "OK" was sent. The rest is financial-meltdown history.

IT would be tough to find an "on the ground" community organizer more closely tied to the subprime-mortgage fiasco than Madeline Talbott. And no one has been more supportive of Madeline Talbott than Barack Obama.

As for Frank and Co., watch them deny, deny, deny the crisis in 2004, a year after the Bush administration tried to tighten up Fannie/Freddie oversight, so they could keep the gravy train moving. Republicans are not blameless in this by any means, as they still had a majority when reforms were suggested, but the brazenness with which Democrats are blaming today's crisis on the market they manipulated for their own gain should not be overlooked. Spread this video.

Email From Sen. Orrin Hatch

2008-10-02T11:51:00.001-07:00

Friend,

So far, Republicans have been holding back when discussing the causes of the current financial crisis. But I'm finished pulling my punches.

Here's the bottom-line -- Democrats pressured banks to make loans to people who could not afford them. And now we are all paying the price.

You have to read this article from The New York Times....circa 1999!

It is a devastating look at liberal Democrat Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac policies that now threaten to bring down the entire U.S. economy. Here's a taste:

"In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's." (New York Times, 9/30/1999)

As a result of this liberal Democrat incompetence, the world financial markets are now on the verge of collapse! And hard-working Americans all over the country may have a tough time getting a car loan, a mortgage, or a loan to expand small a business.

Make no mistake about it. The primary cause of this mess is liberal Democrat do-goodery.

Democrats are desperately trying to pin this financial meltdown on everyone but themselves!

Last week, in Colorado, they tried to blame Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer. Yesterday, in a historic display of partisan ineptitude, Nancy Pelosi blamed conservative Republicans in the House Of Representatives. And in the presidential debate, Barack Obama blamed John McCain for the impending financial collapse.

Democrats absurdly claim that free markets, low taxes and deregulation caused this crisis. So let me get this straight. Democrats manipulate markets for liberal goals, those markets collapse, and then those same Democrats blame the markets? Do they think the American people are dopes?

This video tells the real story.

Please share this email with your friends, family and neighbors.

The liberal media has no interest in telling this story. The press is hell-bent on doing everything in its power to drag Obama across the finish line, so it will ignore the misguided policies of Jimmy Carter, Democrat cronies at Fannie Freddie, Barack Obama, and liberals in Congress that put us in this fix.

As always, thanks for your help.

Sincerely yours,

Senator Orrin Hatch

Finally some truth from President Clinton

2008-10-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

I hope you have had to the chance to watch Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis? If not, please click on Economic Crisis and watch it. After reviewing it, you will see what President Clinton refers to and how ever he agrees that the Democrats and himself are at fault for the current economic crisis and how they should have reined in Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac.

Thank you President Clinton for speaking the truth.

Email From Senator John McCain

2008-09-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

My Friends,

We are in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. Congressional inaction has put every American and the entire economy at the gravest risk. Yesterday the country and the world looked to Washington for leadership, and Congress once again came up empty-handed.

I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem. Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you're trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option.

If we do nothing, many businesses may fail. Sonic Corporation, a drive-in restaurant chain based in Oklahoma, learned on Thursday that one of its lenders, GE Capital, had stopped extending new loans to the chain's franchisees. That will block plans to rebuild restaurants, add equipment and open new locations.

When financing dries up, students can't get loans. In Wisconsin, more than 100 Milwaukee Area Technical College students couldn't access private loans to fund their education. Fortunately the school was able to come up with emergency loans, but this temporary arrangement cannot continue. Markets need to work so that people can get financial help and students can be educated.

Again, inaction is not an option. In light of the House's failure to act, this morning, I spoke to the President about two things that the administration has not done, but should do following the inaction of Congress. First, the Treasury has already used its Exchange Stabilization Fund to back money market accounts. I encourage it to use it this fund as creatively as possible to provide backstop for accounts across our financial system to maintain confidence on the part of savers and investors. And second, the recent housing bill gave the government nearly $1 trillion in authority to purchase mortgages. Housing and mortgages are at the root of this crisis.

The Administration can take these actions with the stroke of the pen to help alleviate the crisis gripping our economy. I urge them to do so.

The FDIC should quickly be granted the authority to increase the deposit insurance cap from $100,000 to $250,000 so that families do not have to worry about their money. We cannot allow a crisis in our financial system to become a crisis in confidence.

I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis. I know that many of the solutions to this problem may be unpopular, but the dire consequences of inaction will be far more damaging to the economic security of American families and the fault will be all ours.

And to my supporters, I assure you I will continue to do whatever I can to aid in a constructive answer to the challenge before us.

Sincerely,

John McCain

P.S. I'm asking you to pass this email along to your friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. We must spread the word that inaction is not an option.

"FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY"

2008-09-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

I just came across this proposal in a forum and thought I should share it with all of you.

THIS IS CALLED "FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY"...

OKAY YOU ECONOMISTS, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS PROPOSAL!!!

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
Instead, I'm in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve
It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide
Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and
child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It
Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.

A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.

Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads

Put away money for college - it'll be there

Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs.

Buy a new car - create jobs

Invest in the market - capital drives growth

Pay for your parent's medical insurance - health care improves

Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who
lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting
back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( 'vote buy' ) economic incentive that is
being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S
Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.

Sell off its parts.

Let American General go back to being American General.

Sell off the real estate.

Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't.

Sure it's a crazy idea that can 'never work.'

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion

We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington
DC .

And remember, this plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5 Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.