Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Fw: Fwd: Is he legal?
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> The following is an article from the July 7, 2008, issue
> #27 from "The American Free Press" Newsp aper, an article by
> Assistant edito r, Pat Shannon.
>
> "It now appears that Barack Obama is consitutionally
> ineligible for the office of president. John McCain's eligibility was
> established in 1964,
> when courts ruled Sen. Barry Goldwater was eligible
> although he was born
> in Arizona when it was a territory, not a state. McCain
> was born in the
> Panama Canal Zone when it was a U.S.territory.
>
> And, even as the controlled media continues to ignore the
> ineligibility
> of Obama, it will not go away. While few doubt that the
> Democrats will
> manage to pull off his nomination, all remain poised to
> view the legal
> performance.
>
> The first hurdle will be having Obama produce his birth
> certificate,
> which so far he has refused to do, and prove that he was
> born in Hawaii
> on August 4, 19 61, as he has always claimed. There is
> speculation that
> his American mother may have brought him to Honolulu
> shortly after his
> birth in Kenya , but no proof of that has been shown.
>
> According to the law on the books at the time of
> Obama's birth, the
> office of president requires that a candidate be a
> natural citizen if
> the child was not born to two U.S.citizen parents. Since
> he was
> not,should it be proven that Obama was not born in Hawaii ,
> as claimed,
> he is ineligible without further debate. But assuring
> that he was born
> there, he has another problem.
>
> According to a le gal researcher who has contacted the AFP,
> U.S.law very
> clearly states: "If only one parent is a U.S.citizen
> at the time of
> one's birth, that parent must have resided in the
> United States for a
> minimum of 10 years, five of which must be after the age of
> 16." And
> therein lies Obama's new problem.
>
> Barack Obama's father was never a U.S.citizen.
>
> Interestingly, there isn't much paperwork on the
> marriage of Obama's
> parents, and this has a few researchers speculating that it
> never took< FONT style="font-size-adjust: none;
> font-stretch: normal" color=blue>
> place at all. On page 27 of "Obama: From Promise
> to Power", David
> Mendell
> wri tes: "Obama later confessed that he never
> searched for the
> government documents on the marriage, although Madelyn
> (Obama's maternal
> grandmother) insisted they were legally married." He
> also notes that
> Obama's father apparently was not legally divorced from
> his first wife
> back in Kenya at the time, a point of contention that
> ultimately led to
> their separation.
> This also would suggest that there may never have been any
> legal
> marriage by Obama's parents at all, but the
> Constitution does not ban an
> illegitimate child from the White House, as long as he was
> born inside
> the U.S.
>
> Obama's mother was born in Kansas and was only 18 when
> Obama was born.
> This means even though she satisfied the citizen
> requirement for 10
> years, she was not a citizen for at least five years prior
> to Obama's
> birth. In essence, the mother alone is not old enough to
> qualify her
> som for automatic U.S.citizenship. At most, two years
> elapsed from his
> mother turning 16 to the time of Barack Obama's birth
> when she was 18.
> His mother would have needed to have been 16 + 5 = 21 years
> old at the
> time of Barack Obama's birth for him to be a
> natural-born citizen.
> Barack Obama was already three years old at the time his
> mother turned
> 21.
>
> Technically, Obama should have been naturalized as a
> citizen, but that,
> of course, would disqualify him from holding the office of
> president.
> If the allegations are accurate, America could install in
> January of
> 2009 a new president who is not even a U.S.citizen, neither
> born nor
> naturalized.
>
> It should be demanded that Obama produce his 1961 Hawaiian
> birth
> certificate.
>
> If he cannot satisfactorily do so, he should be deemed
> immediately
> ineligible to hold the office of president."
>
> Please pass this on to everyone you know.
>
> For our Freedom and L
>
> & nbsp;
>
>
>
>
>
> Looking for a car that's sporty, fun and fits in your
> budget? Read reviews on AOL
> Autos.________________________________________
> PeoplePC Online
> A better way to Internet
> http://www.peoplepc.com
WHERE DID OBAMA'S MONEY COME FROM???????
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: pers-815627749@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2008-08-27, 3:42PM CDT
WHERE DID OBAMA'S MONEY COME FROM???????
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: June 29, 2008
Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating
OBAMA'S TROUBLING INTERNET FUND RAISING
Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating phone call I have received during this election cycle came this week from one of the Obama's campaign internet geeks. These are the staffers who devised Obama's internet fund raising campaign which raised in the neighborhood of $200 million so far. That is more then twice the total funds raised by any candidate in history – and this was all from the internet campaign.
Obama's internet campaign started out innocently enough with basic e-mail networking , lists saved from previous party campaigns and from supporters who visited any of the Obama campaign web sites.
Small contributions came in from these sources and the internet campaign staff were more than pleased by the results.
Then, about two months into the campaign the daily contribution intake multiplied. Where was it coming from? One of the web site security monitors began to notice the bulk of the contributions were clearly coming in from overseas internet service providers and at the rate and frequency of transmission it was clear these donations were 'programmed' by a very sophisticated user.
While the security people were not able to track most of the sources due to firewalls and other blocking devices put on these contributions they were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in seemingly from individuals but the funds were from only a few credit card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers. The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia , Iran , and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia .
Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.
It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws.
It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source (specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure that none of these internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations. They also found the record keeping was not complete enough to do it anyway.
This is a shocking revelation.
We have been concerned about the legality of 'bundling' contributions after the recent exposure of illegal bundlers but now it appears we may have an even greater problem.
I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started to come out. We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama internet contributions were from $10.00 to $25.00 or so.
If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00, that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions? That would also be 13 million contributions would need to be processed. How did all that happen?
I believe the Obama campaign's internet fund raising needs a serious, in depth investigation and audit. It also appears the whole question of internet fund raising needs investigation by the legislature and perhaps new laws to insure it complies not only with the letter of these laws but the spirit as well.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Drill here Drill Now
By Ryan Grim
Aug 26, 2008
E-Mail Story
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(The Politico) House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of "Drill here! Drill now!"
Pelosi paused and asked the group, "Right here?"
Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: "Can we drill your brains?"
She went on to refer to the protestors, who continued to chant sporadically, as "handmaidens of Big Oil." Arguing that increased offshore drilling would only reduce gas prices two cents in 10 years, she referred to the demonstrators as the "two-cents-in-ten-years-crowd."
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer swiped at the demonstrators, too, saying that "sophomoric chanting" won't solve the energy crisis and that "all thinking Americans know" — stressing the word "thinking" and looking at the crowd — that America doesn't have a quarter of the word's fossil fuels yet uses a quarter of the world's energy.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Obama's Vice Presidential Pick Joe Biden On What It Takes To Be President"
> Pick Joe Biden On What It Takes To Be President" via
> http://bit.ly/1MKknI
Obama Camp Has Many Ties To Wife's Employer
> "In Case You Missed It: Obama Camp Has Many Ties To
> Wife's Employer" via http://bit.ly/3H99bn
"Where I'm I don't know. It's Bush's Fault" Barry Hussien Osoma
By Chad Livengood • clivengood@news-leader.com • August 25, 2008
Tonight, Democrat Barack Obama didn't know what town he was in.
In a live satellite speech tonight to the Democratic National Convention in Denver from a home in Kansas City, Obama said: "I'm here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis."
Then came a graphic across the television screen that said Obama was in Kansas City, Mo.
Then 7-year-old Sasha Obama asked: "Daddy, what city are you in?"
"I'm in Kansas City, sweetie," Obama said, correcting his earlier geographic reference.
Obama was at the home in Kansas City tonight to watch his wife Michelle's keynote address, according to his campaign.
Obama is hosting a town hall meeting on Tuesday at the American Airlines facility in Kansas City.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Breaking News 8 Inmates escape Denver Federal Correctional Facility Including a Muslim
B Husseim Obama
M Husseim Kaddaffee Obama
J Indians are eveil Biden
N Pelisso
B J Clinton
H its takes a bridge Clinton
T I LOVE bridges Kennedney
J Peanut Carter (not this Jimmy Carter lives in Georgia
No One in Denver will mention this letter this year.
> SOON TO BE GONE
> By A MILITARY DOCTOR
> This should be required reading in every school and college in our
> country. This Captain, an Army doctor, deserves a medal himself for
> putting this together. If you choose not to pass it on, fine, but I
> think you will want to, after you read it.
>
>
>
>
> I am a doctor specializing in the Emergency Departments of the only
> two military Level One-Trauma Centers, both in San Antonio , TX and
> they care for civilian Emergencies as well as military personnel.
> San Antonio has the largest military retiree population in the world
> living here. As a military doctor, I work long hours and the pay
> is less than glamorous . One tends to become jaded by the long
> hours, lack of sleep, food, family contact and the endless parade
> of human suffering passing before you. The arrival of another
> ambulance does not mean more pay, only more work.
>
> Most often, it is a victim from a motor vehicle crash.
>
> Often it is a person of dubious character who has been shot or
> stabbed. With our large military retiree population, it is often a
> nursing home patient. Even with my enlisted service and minimal
> combat experience in Panama , I have caught myself groaning when the
> ambulance brought in yet another sick, elderly person from one of
> the local retirement centers that cater to military retirees. I had
> not stopped to think of what citizens of this age group represented.
>
> I saw 'Saving Private Ryan.' I was touched deeply. Not so much by
> the carnage, but by the sacrifices of so many. I was touched most by
> the scene of the elderly survivor at the graveside, asking his wife
> if he'd been a good man. I realized that I had seen these same men
> and women coming through my Emergency Dept. and had not realized
> what magnificent sacrifices they had made. The things they did for
> me and everyone else that has lived on this planet since the end of
> that conflict are priceless.
>
> Situation permitting, I now try to ask my patients about their
> experiences. They would never bring up the subject without the
> inquiry. I have been privileged to an amazing array of experiences,
> recounted in the brief minutes allowed in an Emergency Dept.
> encounter. These experiences have revealed the incredible
> individuals I have had the honor of serving in a medical capacity,
> many on their last admission to the hospital.
>
> There was a frail, elderly woman who reassured my young enlisted
> medic, trying to start an IV line in her arm. She remained calm and
> poised, despite her illness and the multiple needle-sticks into her
> fragile veins. She was what we call a 'hard stick.' As the medic
> made another attempt, I noticed a number tattooed across her
> forearm. I touched it with one finger and looked into her eyes.
> She simply said, ' Auschwitz .' Many of later generations would
> have loudly and openly berated the young medic in his many
> attempts. How different was the response from this person who'd
> seen unspeakable suffering.
>
> Also, there was this long retired Colonel, who as a young officer
> had parachuted from his burning plane over a Pacific Island held by
> the Japanese. Now an octogenarian, he had a minor cut on his head
> from a fall at his home where he lived alone. His CT scan and
> suturing had been delayed until after midnight by the usual parade
> of high priority ambulance patients. Still spry for his age, he
> asked to use the phone to call a taxi, to take him home, then he
> realized his ambulance had brought him without his wallet. He asked
> if he could use the phone to make a long distance call to his
> daughter who lived 7 miles away. With great pride we told him that
> he could not, as he'd done enough for his country and the least we
> could do was get him a taxi home, even if we had to pay for it
> ourselves. My only regret was that my shift wouldn't end for several
> hours, and I couldn't drive him myself.
>
> I was there the night M/Sgt. Roy Benavidez came through the
> Emergency Dept. for the last time. He was very sick. I was not the
> doctor taking care of him, but I walked to his bedside and took his
> hand. I said nothing. He was so sick, he didn't know I was there.
> I'd read his Congressional Medal of Honor citation and wanted to
> shake his hand. He died a few days later.
>
> The gentleman who served with Merrill's Marauders,
>
> the survivor of the Bataan Death March,
>
> the survivor of Omaha Beach ,
>
> the 101 year old World War I veteran.
>
> The former POW held in frozen North Korea ,
>
> The former Special Forces medic - now with non-operable liver cancer,
>
> the former Viet Nam Corps Commander.
>
> I remember these citizens
>
> I may still groan when yet another ambulance comes in, but now I am
> much more aware of what an honor it is to serve these particular men
> and women.
>
> I have seen a Congress who would turn their back on these
> individuals who've sacrificed so much to protect our liberty. I see
> later generations that seem to be totally engrossed in abusing these
> same liberties, won with such sacrifice.
>
> It has become my personal endeavor to make the nurses and young
> enlisted medics aware of these amazing individuals when I encounter
> them in our Emergency Dept. Their response to these particular
> citizens has made me think that perhaps all is not lost in the next
> generation.
>
> My experiences have solidified my belief that we are losing an
> incredible generation, and this nation knows not what it is losing.
> Our uncaring government and ungrateful civilian populace should all
> take note. We should all remember that we must 'Earn this.'
>
>
> Written By CPT. Stephen R. Ellison, M.D. US Army
>
> If it weren't for the United States Military,
> there'd be NO United States of America.
>
Thursday, August 21, 2008
FUNNY STUFF
Feds wants Bishops to halt mass children molestations....
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Senator UBL all about family I think not
Senator Barack Obama's long lost brother has been tracked down for the first time living in a shanty town in Kenya, reports claimed.
By Nick Pisa in Rome
Last Updated: 3:54PM BST 20 Aug 2008
George Hussein Onyango Obama, Senator Barack Obama's long lost brother was tracked down living in a hut on the outskirts of Nairobi Photo: Guy Calaf, Vanity Fair, Italy The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.
"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."
According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world.
Vanity Fair also noted that he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael.
He told the magazine: "I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."
Embarrassed by his penury, he said that he does not does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation.
"If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed," he said.
For ten years George Obama lived rough. However he now hopes to try to sort his life out by starting a course at a local technical college.
He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi.
The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".
Of their second meeting, George Obama said: "It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger."
George added he was no longer in contact with his mother and said:"I have had to learn to live and take what I need.
"Huruma is a tough place, last January during the elections there was rioting and six people were hacked to death. The police don't even arrest you they just shoot you.
"I have seen two of my friends killed. I have scars from defending myself with my fists. I am good with my fists."
LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM 79,82,86,04,05,07 AL WEST CHAMPS LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM 2002 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS The Anaheim Ducks 2007 Stanley Cups Champs My blog http://hendrickmotorsports08.blogspot.com/ 'Hate me if you want to, love if you can" Toby Keith
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Obama’s Answer About Supreme Court Justices at Saddleback Forum
Monday, August 18, 2008.
A former law clerk for Clarence Thomas is leading a pack of critics who say Barack Obama's comments about the Supreme Court justice reveal the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's ignorance and misunderstanding of the Constitution.
A weekend event at the 22,000-member Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., was meant to give both Obama and John McCain a chance to address questions of importance to the large evangelical community. Church Pastor Rick Warren, known for his bestselling book "The Purpose-Driven Life," posed the series of questions to each candidate, which were aimed at getting to their personalities, foibles and leadership styles.
During the symposium, Obama said he would not have nominated Thomas to the bench because "I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution."
Click here to see many of the question-and-answer segments at the Saddleback forum.
Obama then added that he would not have nominated Justice Antonin Scalia because they disagree, not because of any intellectual deficiencies.
Wendy E. Long, currently counsel to the The Judicial Confirmation Network, called Obama's responses about the bench "ludicrous." Long released a statement saying the remarks demonstrate Obama contradicts himself in his "own alleged criteria" for high court nominees.
"Obama started to say that Justice Thomas didn't have enough 'experience' for the Supreme Court. In mid-sentence, when Obama realized that he himself has far less experience for the presidency than Justice Thomas had for the court in 1991, he shifted and said Justice Thomas 'was not a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time,'" said Long, a former Senate aide whose conservative group works to get "highly qualified" justices confirmed to the bench.
"This is all reminiscent of (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid's comment several years ago that Justice Thomas was 'an embarrassment to the court' and that his opinions 'were poorly written'. Reid was exposed as the ignoramus then, and the Congressional Black Caucus asked him to stop using 'stereotypes and caricatures,'" she continued.
Reid is among several critics who have called Thomas' written opinions lightweight and suggested that he wants to abandon the principle of "stare decisis" — standing by precedent — and reinvent the wheel with every case.
The topic of several biographies, Thomas, who was confirmed to the court by a 52-48 margin, has also been described as disinterested because he does not ask questions during oral presentations before the court. The justice has defended himself against the criticism, it as an effort to demonstrate respect for the attorneys presenting their cases.
"Reasonable Supreme Court observers of all political stripes, who do not necessarily agree with Justice Thomas' jurisprudence, consider his work to be scholarly and of top quality. And yet Senator Obama is, sadly, unable to acknowledge even that much about an intelligent, wonderful and kind man who broke racial barriers to rise to the very top of the legal profession," said Helgi Walker, a former associate counsel to President Bush and former law clerk for Thomas.
Long and others said Thomas has repeatedly proven critics wrong about his intellectual capacity and repeated previous defenses that much of the criticism of Thomas is because he is a black conservative.
"Apparently, Obama can do no better than to recycle discredited statements of Harry Reid when it comes to Justice Thomas. Like other liberal elites, Obama cannot stand it when a black man strays from the ideological plantation and refuses to implement liberal policies through the courts. But Obama will never point out any intellectual deficiencies in Justice Thomas's work, because he can't. Justice Thomas's opinions consistently reveal faithfulness to the Constitution, judicial modesty and deference to the will of the people in our representative democracy. That is opposed to everything that Obama and the liberals are trying to do in grabbing power from the people and giving it to the courts," she said.
"It's precisely because Justice Thomas has proven himself such a faithful steward of the Constitution that Barack Obama says he wouldn't have nominated him," said Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Policy Center and a former law clerk to Scalia. "If he is elected, Obama is a sure bet to appoint liberal judicial activists eager to invent farfetched constitutional 'rights' that entrench the left's agenda on issues like same-sex marriage, stripping God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, child pornography, partial-birth abortion, and national security. It's Obama who lacks the experience and judgment for the position that he seeks."
Long did not offer comment to McCain's response to the same question in which he said, "with all due respect," he would not have nominated Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens.
"Well, I think that the president of the United States has incredible responsibility in nominating people to the United States Supreme Court. They are lifetime positions, as well as the federal bench. There will be two or maybe three vacancies. This nomination should be based on the criteria of proven record, of strictly adhering to the Constitution of the United States of America and not legislating from the bench. Some of the worst damage has been done by legislating from the bench," McCain said.
Left off both candidates' lists were the nominal moderate in the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and the newest Justice on the court Samuel Alito.
The nomination of justices to the bench is one of the most important criteria for conservatives in the coming election, and several leaders on the right have said they will swallow their distaste for McCain's record on other matters and vote for him because they know he will nominate conservative justices.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page also took jabs at Obama's answer, noting both his and Thomas' career at the time they reached the highest office of their ambitions. The editorial noted that Obama's response may have been inartful.
"Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliché that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white conservative colleagues are," the editorial board wrote.
Long warned that Obama's response reveals the kind of judges Obama would appoint.
"Obama wants justices who will do his bidding, who will implement the preferred policies of the liberal establishment – not Justices like Thomas, Scalia, Roberts and Alito, who understand that the role of a judge is not to legislate from the bench," she said.
She also slammed the candidate for saying that he would take the counsel from his wife and grandmother as well as former Sen. Sam Nunn and Sens. Dick Lugar, Ted Kennedy and Tom Coburn.
"Obama's answer about the three wisest people in his life, upon whom he would rely heavily in his administration, also sheds light on the way he would choose Supreme Court Justices. Obama said he would consult his grandmother, his wife, and Ted Kennedy. This is unlikely to yield the highest quality judicial nominees who understand the Constitution and the role of judges in our constitutional democracy," Long said.
Angels Baseball
To:Angels Baseball
From: Mark
Date 8/20/2008
Re: Recent Perforance
Hello guys currently we arn't doing so good and I see 1995 all over again. If would be nice to win the divison but if we arnt going to score a run for 21 inning like last year in the playoffs let the Rangers have the divison. Yes that sound sad and bad comming from me but look. I dont expect you all to win the world series every year but waiting until the third game to score a run is unacceptable. Winning 11 games in October would be nice. But lets not forget that we need to win in August and September. Tampa Bay Police stated that a Crock and Gator were responsible for last nights lost. However lets win today and send Crock and Gator back to the swamp. Finally can we teach ENGLISH to some of our players if they are making 15 million a year they can speak ENGLISH
Thanks
Credit crunch may take out large US bank warns former IMF chief Gary Duncan
Credit crunch may take out large US bank warns former IMF chiefGary Duncan, Economics Editor and Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
The deepening toll from the global financial crisis could trigger the failure of a large US bank within months, a respected former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund claimed today, fuelling another battering for banking shares.
Professor Kenneth Rogoff, a leading academic economist, said there was yet worse news to come from the worldwide credit crunch and financial turmoil, particularly in the United States, and that a high-profile casualty among American banks was highly likely.
"The US is not out of the woods. I think the financial crisis is at the halfway point, perhaps. I would even go further to say the worst is to come," Prof Rogoff said at a conference in Singapore.
In an ominous warning, he added: "We're not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months, we're going to see a whopper, we're going to see a big one — one of the big investment banks or big banks," he said.
Related Links
Tempus analysis: Timely reminder
Crunch calendar: where it all went wrong
Credit crunch: One year on
Rising anxieties over "worse to come" in the credit crisis sent shares tumbling in Europe and Asia.
In London, the FTSE 100 index extended opening losses as widespread fears over the financial sector's woes led to another battering for stocks. The FTSE fell 102.50 points to 5,347.7, plunging it into bear market territory — a level 20 per cent below the October 12, 2007 peak of 6730.71 — for the sixth time in two months. Germany's Dax shed 110.83 to 6322.12, while the CAC 40 in Paris lost 86.49 to 4362.35.
Professor Rogoff, who was chief economist at the IMF from 2001 to 2004, predicted that the crisis would foster a new wave of consolidation in the US financial sector before it was over, with mergers between large institutions.
He also suggested that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the struggling US secondary mortgage lending giants, were likely to cease to exist in their present form within a few years.
His prediction over the fate of Fannie and Freddie came after investors dumped the two groups' shares on Monday after reports suggested that the US Treasury may have no choice but to effectively nationalise them.
The professor also sounded a warning over rising US inflation, which rose last month to its highest since 1991, and criticised the Federal Reserve for having cut American interest rates too drastically. "Cutting interest rates is going to lead to a lot of inflation in the next few years in the United States," he said.
As investors' edginess over the threat of further financial turbulence sent equity markets into a further spin, bank shares were hit hardest. Among the biggest fallers in London morning trade were HBOS, down almost 6 per cent, Royal Bank of Scotland, whose shares plunged by 4 per cent, while HSBC fell 1.5 per cent. In continental Europe, Spain's Banco Santander was off 2.5 per cent, and BNP Paribas lost 3.6 per cent.
Persistent worries over the rapidly deteriorating economic outlook in the UK also saw sterling succumb to fresh losses. The pound lost almost a cent against the dollar, dropping back to $1.8565, not far above near-two year lows plumbed on Friday.
Earlier, there were fresh jitters in Asia, with the region's leading bourses in sharp retreat after a dire overnight performance by Wall Street left the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by more than 180 points. Both Asian markets and Wall Street were unnerved by suggestions over the prospects for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
While Japanese banks have remained relatively under-exposed to sub-prime mortgage products, many fear that they would be heavily exposed to a nationalisation of Fannie and Freddie. The large Japanese financial houses hold around Y9.6 trillion (£47 billion) in bonds and mortgage-backed paper issued by housing finance groups in the US.
"If the recapitalisation talk is realised, there are no assurances that the securities that have been issued [by U.S. mortgage firms] will be 100 per cent guaranteed," said Yutaka Shiraki, a senior equity strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.
Financial sector shares were particularly badly hit in Tokyo, where they led the Nikkei 225 Index into a 300-point decline. The selling continued throughout the day, and peaked after a declaration by the Bank of Japan that the world's second largest economy was now looking "sluggish".
Although the central bank's downbeat economic report included vague predictions of a return to growth over time, traders said that the comments had shattered any last hope that Asia's export-led economy might somehow "decouple" from the woes in the US.
The picture was somewhat more stable in Shanghai, which spent a day in relative limbo following Monday's 5.3 per cent nosedive. With Chinese stocks beating a daily retreat, investors are focused on the 2001 index high of 2,245-points. Some believe that level will hold up as a technical floor on the selling, others believe that it may shortly fail and unleash a much deeper collapse in stock values.
Money Central: the 10 best stock investments ever
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
OBAMA(NEWS FLASH)
Comments that they must have listened to him, stopped it and went home and the call for the cease fire was successful. Comments on how proud he was to see so many people inflating their tires while he was there. He states all is well in that country he lives in.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Video: Massive Freedom rally in Tblisi citing European and American support;
Posted: 12 Aug 2008 09:58 PM CDT
Talk about standing up for your buddies. This is why non-interventionism is such a crock. Would you honestly sit back and watch as your friends get destroyed by evil totalitarian aggression? We may not be able to militarily intervene right now in Georgia, but we certainly can intervene politically and diplomatically in this conflict.
Georgia may be a small blip on the map somewhere off where most Americans have never heard of it, but just like Israel, it's a beacon of freedom and a civilized democratic republic recognized by NATO (not a NATO member yet but still) and a very strong ally to the United States. Not many countries can say they've supported the war in Iraq enough to send their own troops in to help with the coalition forces and Georgia did just that in sending 2000 troops a few years ago into battle.
100,000 Georgians turned out for the massive freedom rally.
AFP - In a show of defiance to the Russian attacks, 100,000 people packed the main Rustaveli avenue of Tbilisi, where a sea of red-and-white Georgian flags waved above the crowds.
President Mikheil Saakashvili told a rally that Georgia would quit the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a grouping of former Soviet states, and urged Ukraine to follow suit.
Georgia has received strong support from other former communist states with the leaders of Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states travelling to Tbilisi where they addressed a mass rally.
"You have the right to freedom and independence. We are here to demonstrate our solidarity … freedom is worth fighting for," shouted Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in live pictures carried by Georgian television.
This is so awesome to watch…notice the large American flag being flown inside that huge crown of over 100,000 people. After seeing the American flag burned, stomped on, spit on and ridiculed on video by crazy Islamists and anti-American leftists, it was absolutely amazing to see another country, in Europe for that matter, at a massive rally waving the American flag and thanking America for it's support.
Watch the short speech given by Georgian President Saakashvili and watch how he singles out John McCain in his support for Georgia through this crisis:
from NRO
Also an interesting detail on CNN a moment ago: At a rally in Tbilisi today, Georgians "roared" when their president, Mikhil Saakashvili, repeated John McCain's statement, "We are all Georgians today."
Also Saakashvili was joined by the leaders of Estonia, Poland, Ukraine and Latvia during the rally…wow!
European presidents back Georgia at Tbilisi rally
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) - The leaders of five former Soviet bloc states have spoken out against Russian domination at a rally in Georgia's capital. Poland's President Lech Kaczynski has told the gathered Georgians, "Our neighbor thinks it can fight us. We are telling it no." He was referring to Russia, which has sent tanks and jets to repel a Georgian advance on a separatist region. Kaczyinski says Russia wants a return to old times. Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko told the huge crowd "freedom is worth fighting for." The leaders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were also at Tuesday night's rally. French President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Tbilisi for talks with Georgia's president, but did not take part in the rally.
and Hotair on John McCain's reaction to the conflict in comparison to Barry Hussein's:
Having outflanked Obama on the conflict, he's reaching for a Reaganesque moment here; considering how few downsides there are in this case to taking a hawkish stance, I'm surprised Barry O didn't seize the moment from the beginning to talk tough and earn a few C-in-C points with centrists. Too late now.
Here was John McCain earlier when he proclaimed support for Georgia saying "Today, We are all Georgians"
This is an amazing turn of events folks, I don't know if you all realize how significant the events of the last week really are and what kind of influence this is going to have over all future relations with Russia in the coming years.
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Lt Col Walkers Statement on the NEW USSR
Good Morning and God Bless America
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Another part of country music died
August 11, 2008
Don Helms, the steel guitarist in Hank Williams' Drifting Cowboys band, died Monday morning (Aug. 11) in Nashville. He was 81. Helms recorded more than 100 songs with Williams, including "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Cold, Cold Heart." He also appears on the recordings of Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil," Patsy Cline's "Walkin' After Midnight" and Stonewall Jackson's "Waterloo," as well as some early Johnny Cash albums. His songwriting credits include Brenda Lee's 1961 pop hit, "Fool No. 1," and Hank Williams Jr.'s "The Ballad of Hank Williams." Helms continued to perform following Williams' death, including a stint in the '60s with the Wilburn Brothers as part of their syndicated TV series and touring band. Most recently, Helms played regular monthly gig with the band Brazilbilly at Robert's Western World, a honky-tonk in downtown Nashville. He is survived by his wife, Hazel.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Senator Osoma is all wrong for America
Obama is too young and inexperienced.
One of Obama's most striking characteristics is how "green" he is compared to previous presidential candidates. Obama was born on August 4, 1961. He just turned 47 years old. The average age of elected presidents since 1952 (the era of televised politics) is 56.
If elected president, Obama would be the fifth youngest president in U.S. history. The only younger presidents would be Teddy Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Ulysses S. Grant, all of whom were much more accomplished than Obama. Grant, Roosevelt, and Kennedy were war heroes. (Not Clinton, notoriously.) Roosevelt and Clinton had served as state governors. Grant had been the general-in-chief of the Union Army during the Civil War. The least experienced of the four, Kennedy, had served twelve years in Congress, six in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate, and had been a serious candidate for vice-president in 1956.
What has Obama accomplished to date? In truth, not very much -- except to master the art of self-promotion.
Obama has written two best-selling autobiographies: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006). Yet he has never served in an important leadership position in government, business, or the military. His ability to perform as a chief executive officer is completely untested.
Obama has prestigious degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, but no significant professional achievements to his name. No businesses or organizations he has founded or managed. No law firm partnerships. No important cases he has tried. Not a single work of legal scholarship he has authored, despite having been Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review and a part-time law professor at the University of Chicago for twelve years. (This is unheard of in the elite ranks of the legal profession, and calls into question the bona fides of Obama's professorship.)
Obama's principal occupation before entering politics was as a "community organizer" in Chicago. By his own admission, these efforts achieved only "some success," and none worthy of highlighting on his campaign website. Obama then served eight unexceptional years in the Illinois Senate, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, where he is not even considered one of the Democratic Party's legislative leaders.
And this man believes he is "the one we have been waiting for"?
Obama may be considered a "rock star" by his supporters, but the kind of superficial glamour and excitement that this terminology suggests is not what most voters are looking for in a president. Heartland values, not Hollywood values, still define what most voters want in a president. Most voters want a president whom they perceive as loyal, courageous, hardworking, and fair. Someone who commands the respect of others through the strength of his character and the wisdom of his actions. Someone who is prepared to fight to protect his home and country from invaders. In other words, someone who appeals to voters, on a psychological or emotional level, as the kind of person they would want for a father, husband, boss, or comrade-in-arms.
Rock stars may be fun, but they do not fit this image. Neither does Obama. His life story, while unique and interesting, bespeaks little more than an ambitious and opportunistic young man, still wet behind the ears, with an unhealthy fascination with his own ego - and potentially unreliable when the chips are down.
The American people are not going to entrust the security and prosperity of the country to such an immature and unproven man.
Obama is too liberal.
The last Democratic presidential candidate who garnered more than 50% of the popular vote was Jimmy Carter in 1976 - and Carter received only 51% of the vote in a political environment marked by defeat in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, an energy crisis, and stagflation. There has been only one other Democratic president in the past 40 years: Bill Clinton. Despite campaigning as "New Democrat," Clinton received only 43% of the popular vote in 1992 (his victory was due to the third-party candidacy of Ross Perot) and 49% of the popular vote in 1996. Significantly, the Democratic candidate's share of the popular vote has gone down the last two elections. Al Gore received 48.4% of the popular vote in 2000, and John Kerry received 48.3% in 2004.
The Democratic Party has a terrible track record at the presidential level since the 1960s because it consistently nominates far left presidential candidates who do not represent the values, interests, and aspirations of most Americans. See McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Kerry. Even Gore, who was considered a "moderate" Democratic (no longer), lost to the uninspiring George W. Bush in 2000.
Barack Obama is no exception. In his brief tenure in the U.S. Senate, Obama has compiled a consistently liberal voting record, and was named the Most Liberal Senator for 2007 by the National Journal . This distinction does not augur well for Obama. John Kerry was named the Most Liberal Senator for 2003 -- the year before he lost the 2004 presidential contest to Bush.
As a U.S. Senator, Obama has voted along Democratic Party lines 97 percent of the time, almost 10 percentage points higher than the average for Senate Democrats. So much for his "bipartisan" image. He opposed funding for the War on Terror that was not tied to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He opposed strengthening the ability of the federal government to monitor terrorist communications. He voted in favor of providing habeas corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. He supported the failed "comprehensive immigration reform" bills. He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. He opposed a bill that would have reduced the federal estate tax. He voted against the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
For his efforts, Obama has received "100" ratings from Americans for Democratic Action, Planned Parenthood, the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Government Workers, Citizens for Tax Justice (i.e., for raising taxes on the "rich"), Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the National Education Association, and the National Organization for Women. He has received "F" grades from the National Taxpayers Union, the National Rifle Association, and U.S. English, a 13 rating from Citizens Against Government Waste, 7 ratings from the Club for Growth, the American Conservative Union, and the Eagle Forum, and zero ratings from the Family Research Council, the National Right to Life Committee, and Americans for Tax Reform.
Obama's voting record as a state senator reflected the same left-wing agenda: He opposed restrictions on partial birth abortion and requiring medical care for fetuses who are born alive during an abortion. He opposed requiring school officials to install pornography-blocking software on public computers accessible to minors. He opposed a $500 income tax credit for parents who send their children to private schools. He supported restrictions on gun ownership, and opposed a bill that permitted the owner of an unregistered handgun to claim self-defense if he used the gun in his own home. He consistently voted in favor of higher taxes.
True to form, in his campaign for president, Obama advocates a dizzying array of hyper-liberal policies, including: "equal pay" laws, expanded federal leave laws, expanded "hate crime" laws, a panoply of social services for convicted criminals, increasing foreign aid spending by tens of billions of dollars with the goal of "cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015" (pure utopianism paid for by the American taxpayer), requiring 25 percent of U.S. electricity come from "renewable" sources by 2025 (an impossible goal without drastically shrinking the economy), spending tens of billions of dollars on an FDR-style array of federal economic programs, further raising the minimum wage, and providing "affordable" and "comprehensive" health insurance to all Americans (aka socialized medicine). Naturally, he proposes to pay for all these programs by raising taxes on "the wealthiest taxpayers" and imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.
With the sole (and misguided) exception of "universal health care," there is little popular demand in this country for the kind of soak-the-rich, tax-and-spend politics that Obama is offering. This is not 1932 or 1965. The American people are not interested in another round of top-down social engineering by the federal government. If anything, the nation's political leaders need to catch up to the waves of conservative and populist impulses spreading throughout the country. See, for example, the grassroots movement to limit the eminent domain power of state and local governments and the nationwide revolt against "comprehensive Immigration reform."
Obama's dissolutely liberal politics will sink him in the general election, just as it torpedoed previous Democratic candidates.
Obama is too race-conscious.
Finally, we come to the "hot button" issue in this election: Obama's black racial consciousness.
Contrary to what Obama and his supporters want the American people to believe, Obama is not a "post-racial" politician. As abundantly demonstrated in his two autobiographies, his 20-year membership in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "unashamedly black" Trinity United Church of Christ, and his "intensely race-conscious approach" to politics as an Illinois state senator (see here), Obama is deeply committed to his "black" identity -- despite having a white mother and being raised for much of his childhood by his white grandparents. Furthermore, Obama built his political career on promoting the interests of the black urban community. Right or wrong, fair or unfair, Obama's black racial consciousness is going to have a negative effect on his campaign for president by undermining his appeal among white working- and middle-class voters.
Let's look at some numbers. According to the CNN exit poll, in the 2004 presidential election, the electorate was composed of 77% whites, 11% blacks, 8% Latinos, 2% Asian, and 2% other. They voted as follows: whites 58-41 for Bush; blacks 88-11 for Kerry; Latinos 53-44 for Kerry; Asians 56-44 for Kerry.
I see little reason to believe that the Latino or Asian votes will change substantially in 2008. (Some analysts are predicting that McCain will do better than Bush among Latinos.) Clearly, the black vote will shift even more strongly in favor of the Democratic candidate. However, the white voting population is seven times larger than the black voting population. Consequently, a shift in the black vote of seven percentage points is roughly equivalent to a shift in the white vote of one point. Even if Obama were to receive essentially all black votes, which is unlikely, a loss of less than two percentage points of the white vote would be enough to offset these gains.
So the key to the upcoming election is whether white voters will be more, less, or equally likely to vote for Obama as for Kerry. I believe the answer is less likely.
Interestingly, commentators on the left tend to agree with this prediction, because they believe that many white voters are "racists"; commentators on the right usually ignore the race issue altogether, because they fear that any discussion of white voting preferences will support the "racism" charge. I disagree that "racism" is the explanation. Rather, it is Obama's history of race-based politics and his membership in a militant black church - which places him in opposition to most white voters on such emotional issues as welfare, crime, and affirmative action, and casts doubt on his ability and commitment to represent the interests of the entire nation.
To develop a profile of Obama's electoral strengths and weaknesses, I examined the CNN entrance and exit polls for the 2008 Democratic primaries in Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These were the states in which the spread between Bush and Kerry in 2004 was three percentage points or less (in either direction). (New Hampshire also belongs on this list, but I could not find polling data for the 2008 primaries in that state.) I selected these states because they are likely to be the critical battlegrounds this fall.
The polls show that, in general, Obama did especially well among black voters, younger voters (under 45), voters who earn more than $100,000 per year, voters with college and postgraduate degrees, non-religious voters, and self-described liberal voters. In other words, the core constituencies of the Democratic Party. On the other hand, he demonstrated much less appeal to white voters, older voters (ages 45 and up), voters who earn less than $50,000 per year, voters with some or no college education, Catholic voters, and self-described moderate voters. In other words, white working- and middle-class voters -- so-called Reagan Democrats. These voters strongly preferred Hillary Clinton.
Significantly, in the 2004 election, John Kerry performed reasonably well among this group. He won 55 percent of voters who earn less than $50,000. He won 47 percent of voters ages 45 and up. He won 47 percent of voters with no college degree. He won 47 percent of Catholic voters. He won 55 percent of self-described moderate voters. Nevertheless, Kerry lost. If only a few percent of these voters switch to McCain, as I believe they will, Obama cannot win. Yes, tens of millions of Americans (of all colors) will vote for Obama; but more will vote for McCain.
Overall, I predict Obama will receive even less of the popular vote than John Kerry in 2004 (48.3%), and perhaps as little as Michael Dukakis in 1988 (45.7%).
As I wrote last December, "[t]he pundits can talk until they are blue in the face about Obama's charisma and eloquence and cross-racial appeal. The fact of the matter is that Obama has no chance of being elected president in 2008." I am more convinced of this conclusion than ever
Fw: #dontgo Movement
'Hate me if you want to, love if you can" Toby Keith --- On Mon, 8/11/08, #dontgo Movement <eric@conservablogs.com> wrote: From: #dontgo Movement <eric@conservablogs.com> | |||||||||||
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Simple step to send Speaker of the US House a message
LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM 79,82,86,04,05,07 AL WEST CHAMPS LOS ANGELES ANGELS OF ANAHEIM 2002 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS The Anaheim Ducks 2007 Stanley Cups Champs My blog http://hendrickmotorsports08.blogspot.com/ 'Hate me if you want to, love if you can" Toby Keith
Monday, August 4, 2008
Fw: Fwd: Fw: Breaking News!!
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