A second Obama "Rope-the-Dope" opportunity missed was McCain's "love for the troops" statement, and how his "take care of them" line was false. McCain has not taken care of them. He voted against increasing funds, early on and before the outrage over the lack of protection for soldier safety, which Rumsfeld failed to deliver. The nation's anger over the lack of body armor, and inadequate Humvee plating became a huge outcry. Plus, soldiers were calling for additional time off between deployments, and "Stop-Losses". Soldiers were not even offered the same G.I. Bill that McCain was offered; nor were soldiers receiving timely medical and psychiatric care; injured soldiers even had to pay for their own clothes and phone cards while in the hospital; and, we all recall the deplorable conditions that Walter Reed Hospital had fallen into. All of these examples were not championed by McCain- the Change Candidate, the Maverick, the Outspoken One; and, he had to be led kicking and screaming to "take care of them". McCain did not vote for additional down time between deployments. His reason to vote against the upgrade to the G.I. Bill was because he felt soldiers would not stay in the service long enough for his liking. He voted with the president over 90% of the time.
Obama needs to get-up-to-speed and utilize every defensive and offensive strategy available, otherwise the mentally-ill Republicon candidate will, once again, frame the debate.
Also, it is OK to acknowledge specific points that you and your opponent agree on, but limit them to one or two. Keep the rest to yourself, Barack!
If Obama has not realized that McCain is a mean, angry, and mentally-ill individual, at this point in the race, then he has a real problem. When McCain got up on stage to debate Obama, he fell back into his months as a POW mustering his deeply rooted survival mechanisms needed to resist the physical and mental torture laid on him by his Vietcong captors. McCain has never resolved those psychiatric problems, and therefore, would use them as president, negatively impacting upon his decision-making, if elected. In addition, his judgement is impaired. Just look at his choice of a running mate. What was wrong with Olympia Snowe, John? Not dumb enough? Too much experience? Not a strong enough Hillary vote grabber? Oh, Olympia couldn't see Russia from her house! And, did not have a witch-doctor for a pastor; or read too many newspapers; or could recall more than one Supreme Court case. And, of course, did not look like Tina Fey!
As Michael Whitney ( Counterpunch.org) described in his article, (of which I will add literary color!), Hank "The Paulie" Paulson staged a take over of the entire financial system not unlike a small time crime boss gathering forces to overthrow a kingpin crime mobster's money laundering business. Whitney said, "He rose to power in a stealthily-executed Bankster's Coup in which he, and his coterie of dodgy friends declared martial law on the U.S. economy while elevating himself to supreme leader." This even held true on 10-1-08. It is Paulie's October Surprise, aided and abetted by the Congress, and his side-kick Bada Bing Bernanke. These two cranks held the congress at gunpoint threatening to blow the lid off of the entire pop-stand if they didn't turn over the money. "Give me the money or the whole place will go up in smoke." Then he turned to the knee-shakin' bankstas, and said, "I own ya know, boys!"
Mike Whitney went on to write that "the days of the republic are over." Section 8 of the first bailout bill said that--
"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of the Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."
Does this sound like a democracy? Neo-fascism has now been passed into law by Congress. This is a milestone moment. The Republicons, and assisted by Democons, have moved for the legalization of corruption and to be directed by a unitary executive Treasury Secretary, assisted by the Federal Reserve chairman! The foxes are now in charge of the henhouses. "No one comes in or goes out without see us first, hens!"
Obama voted "yes". It is all about the bankstas, who have brought nothing to economic growth but a financial tsunami, while abandoning a national economic CPR plan which would begin to improve economic growth. Peter Morici, Noriel Roubini, Dean Baker and others have outlined a plan that would not reward the fraudsters on Wall-Street. Unfortunately, Obama is not listening to them, either. Nobel Prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz, and Jared Bernstein are at the bottom of his advisory list, and these two should be at the top. Peter Morici's article describing how we got to this point, and his excellent solution to the crisis can be read here.
There was no Democratic congressional outrage over the Putin-style takeover of the private financial system by the Treasury and Fed, enriching these corrupt Wall-Street CEOs who will show gratitude by writing large campaign contribution checks to the Republicon Party. Will the capitulating Democons be left out? "Oh please, throw me a bone!"
The Act stated this: "designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them." I guess this means that loans will be dished out as dictated by the Government! Only those who give sizable campaign contributions are allowed into the newly established Mr. Paulie's Credit Club House.
There it was laid out by the kleptocracy that the U.S. government now controls the financial institutions, which will be paid for by the taxpayers. Don't you feel excited to be part of the game now?
According to a highly respected economist, Michael Hudson, the Treasury will use $800 billion from the Social Security Administration's account to bail-out/buy-out the Banksta Gangsta fraudster's over-leveraged, under-capitalized, and value-less toxic derivatives sitting on their balance sheets. Go ahead and use the middle classes' freshly withheld and hard-earned social security contributions. Steal from the poor and give to the ultra-rich who gambled it all away and now want a government handout so they don't miss payments on their existing vacation homes, or luxury cars, or Radcliffe tuition payments, or Lear jets, or Italian vacations, or 500 karat diamond necklaces. These bankstas are very likely Republicons who don't even pay a fraction of their incomes into social security, while most of us pay 100% of our incomes into the fund.
Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, and now, Obama, and McCain, along with their human side-arms, held a gun to the heads of millions of Americans, making up a majority of them, called, emailed, protested in the streets, and faxed their voices by bellowing out that they do not want to take the poison pill, which they were told was the thing to do for the country. They are all like the preacher, Jim Jones, who told his cult followers to take the Kool-Aid suicide drink for the good of the cause.
I cannot even recall Bush or his crime family henchmen ever doing ANYTHING for the "good of the country" unless it involved a Lie-Based Initiative Greed Program. Read the Act here. Dig more here.
Are you happy that the Royal Bank of Scotland and every other foreign central bank in the world holding bad debt will get a chunk of bailout money by selling it to the Treasury, and in return will receive bailout taxpayer money? Why? To keep them from dumping dollars on the open market? Now, it could also be to allow those banks to freely obtain Treasuries which could later be used to BUY Treasuries, next year, to help pay for an increasingly rising budget deficit. Today it is $410 billion. Will it be higher for 2009, and not lower as Bush has projected?
The Russian president, Medvedev has said today in the Australian News that U.S. economic hegemony is coming to an end as he spoke before a Russian-German development forum. "We must work together towards building a new and more just financial-economic system in the world on the principles of multi-polarity, supremacy of the law and taking account of mutual interests." Does it really matter exactly why we got ripped off other than we got ripped off? It has been done. Here is another tidbit about the bailout. Banks can hold as little as ZERO reserves to cover deposits. How about that? This bailout has nothing to do with Main or Side Street as the Bush Crime Family and their congressional surrogates have led us to believe. It is about protecting the Crime Family and those linked to it worldwide. It is about protecting the wealthiest among us and keeping their purses full. No bankruptcy courts for them. No transparency for their balance sheets or debt valuations. No indictments. Steely Dan wrote a song in the 1970s called Royal Scam; and that is what we now have before us!
Obama said today, 10-1-08, that if he becomes president, he will thoroughly examine the bill and make sure the taxpayers are paid back in full. Oh yes. Don't you feel better already? Once the house catches fire, in a few months, he will come back with the fire extinguisher.
Barack, you really give me comfort.
Thanks for reading, Jerry
TIDBIT: McCain says that because Sarah Palin was a PTA member helps make her qualified to take the seat of the president, if need be. He went on to say she has experience, yet Obama doesn't have experience? Is McCain of sound mind? Watch the clip here. Watch the entire 9-30-08 Des Moines Register interview here.
POSTSCRIPT: We have been saying all along that we don't need these big financial institutions to function as a nation! Watch the Dr. Dean Baker video on the next page. I agree with his assessment that we don't need these banks. Only the shareholders, and CEOs want this bailout! Just tell the depositors to remove their life savings and redeposit it in their local and regional banks.
