William Shatner Makes Palin's Speech Into Poetry

I was at a party in Haverhill MA on Saturday, we were talking and the topic drifted to Sarah Plalin. Someone showed this video of William Shatner on the Tonight show reading her resignation speech to the beat of bongo drums...

For the life of me, I do not know how he kept a straight face while he was reading it.

Update: I found this video of William Shatner reads Sarah Palin Twitter poetry...

Has Bush Admitted That His Presidency Is A Failure?

In a speech yesterday, Bush said,

Bush cautioned that it would take time to solve the financial crisis. However, he noted that actions taken, including massive government intervention, numerous reductions in interest rates, and continued liquidity injections "are having an impact."

"Credit markets are beginning to thaw. Businesses are gaining access to essential short-term financing. And a measure of stability is returning to financial systems around the world," he said.

Several reforms should be enacted, Bush said, including increasing transparency, ensuring that markets are properly regulated, enhancing financial market integrity, protecting against market manipulation and fraud, and increasing international cooperation by global financial authorities. Specifically, Bush called for an update of the structure of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Isn’t that the exact opposite of his eight years in office where he pushed deregulation, less government oversight, less transparency in government and less governmental intrusion in business? He also did a 180 deg. in a call for strengthening the SEC and more international cooperation. Now he is advocating government buying ownership in banks which is called Socialism.

However, one thing that Bush did say that will come true… he advocated for a smarter government and that will come true when Barack Obama takes office.

Job Openings…

This is from the "Change.gov" Office of the President-Elect...

"This website is designed to provide prospective applicants with information to help them apply for positions in the Obama-Biden Administration. President-Elect Obama will make appointments throughout the federal government. Some positions will require Senate confirmation while others will not. Some appointments will be made during the transition process and others during the early part of the new Administration."
...
"The Obama-Biden Transition Project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law."

Get Out And Vote!!!

Update: 8:55am I just voted and there were no lines, in and out in five minutes!

NAACP Chair Julian Bond on Civil Rights and LGBT Civil Rights Movements.

A Conversation With...Jonathan Capehart & Julian Bond


I found this on The Bilerico Project

Powell endorses Obama as 'transformational' on Meet the Press

Powell endorses Obama as 'transformational'
By MIKE ALLEN | 10/19/08 10:16 AM EDT
Retired General Colin L. Powell, one of the country's most respected Republicans, stunned both parties on Sunday by strongly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president on NBC's "Meet the Press" and laying out a blistering, detailed critique of the modern GOP.

Powell said the election of Obama would "electrify the world."

"I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said. "He is a new generation coming ... onto the world stage and on the American stage. And for that reason, I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

Powell, once considered likely to be the nation's first African-American presidential nominee, said his decision was not about race
...
Powell, making his 30th appearance on "Meet the Press," led into his endorsement by saying: "We've got two individuals — either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now — which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time.

"And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

Powell, speaking live in the studio, told moderator Tom Brokaw that he is "troubled" by the direction of the Republican Party and said he began to doubt Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
...
Powell, 71, criticized McCain and his campaign for invoking the former domestic terrorist William Ayers.

"They're trying to connect him to some kind of terrorist feelings, and I think that's inappropriate," Powell said. "Now I understand what politics is all about — I know how you can go after one another. And that's good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me.

"And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficult with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration."

Powell said he has "heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion [that Obama's] a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists."

"This is not the way we should be doing it in America. I feel strongly about this particular point," Powell said. "We have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."
...
Powell said a big job of the new president will be “conveying a new image of American leadership, a new image of America’s role in the world.”

“I think what the president has to do is to start using the power of the Oval Office and the power of his personality to convince the American people and to convince the world that America is solid, America is going to move forward … restoring a sense of purpose,” he said.

Doubts raised on US 'plumber Joe'

Doubt has been cast over the story of "Joe the plumber", the man who unexpectedly became the star of this week's US presidential debate.
Joe Wurzelbacher, of Ohio, was thrown into the spotlight after he was used by John McCain as an example of who might suffer under Barack Obama's tax plans.

But it now emerges he is not a licensed plumber and owes $1,200 in back taxes.
...
He was held by Mr McCain in the debate as an example of an every day hard-working American who would be penalized by Mr Obama's tax policy.

However, a bit of media digging has uncovered that Mr Wurzelbacher's first name is actually Samuel and he does not have a plumber's licence, although the company he works for does.
...
Mr Wurzelbacher acknowledged he did not have a plumber's licence and admitted in one interview he was "not even close" to earning $250,000.

(BBC News)
Hmmm.... It seems the McCain campaign didn't do there homework first before they made "Joe the Plumber" a national figure for McCain policy

My Fellow Prisoner?

Say It's Not True!

I found this on a number of blogs, but I could not find whoever did this, I want to thank them and give them credit, but alas they are lost in the web.

Smoke And Mirrors

Over the course of years the Republicans has slowly been trying to privatize Social Security. Touting the virtues of 401k’s and Roth IRA’s how we should not have to give the government our hard earned money, only to have them give it back to us.

“Not only did Senator McCain support privatized Social Security in a March 3 interview with the Wall Street Journal, but in 2006 he voted to shift Social Security’s annual surpluses into a reserve account that would be converted into private accounts. [S. Con. Res., Vote #68, 3/16/06]. Earlier in his Senate career, McCain voted twice to replace Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with income from risk-based private investments. [S. Con. Res., Vote #56, 4/1/98; S. Con. Res., Vote #77, 4/1/98](Alliance for Retired Americans)

Now McCain says…

John McCain will fight to save the future of Social Security and believes that we may meet our obligations to the retirees of today and the future without raising taxes. John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts -- but not as a substitute for addressing benefit promises that cannot be kept… (John McCain for Prsident)

There are a lot of words there, but what does he actually mean? What does they mean by “John McCain supports supplementing the current Social Security system with personal accounts…” they has no details of what they mean by that. Does he still mean that he want to start privatizing Social Security? It is all smoke and mirrors.

I retired last year in June and have been living off my IRA’s and 401k’s, I had saved up enough to earn 2/3rd of my former pay and I figured that would be enough until I reached 66 1/2 to start receiving Social Security and my pension. However, this week I saw a 30% drop in my savings and I am to a point where I have to consider that I may have to go back to work. Who would want to hire a 60 year old tranny? I think my job prospects are near zero! Will it mean that I will have to drop out of college?

Obama web site says…

Obama does not support uncapping the full payroll tax of 12.4 percent rate. Instead, he is considering plans that would ask those making over $250,000 to pay in the range of 2 to 4 percent more in total (combined employer and employee). This change to Social Security would start a decade or more from now and is similar to the rate increases floated by John McCain’s close adviser Senator Lindsey Graham and that McCain has previously said he “could” support. (Barack Obama and Joe Biden: The Change We Need)

I support that plan, instead of forcing people to invest in personal savings accounts. I understand the different types of investments and I have one of the top rated brokers firms (so far it hasn’t going under, knock on wood), plus I only invested to highly rated investments and I still lost close to a third of my investments this week. How would the average person faired if their retirement rested on their ability to make sound investments?

Many people earn only enough to live on and to ask them to begin to save for their retirement when they came not live on what they are making now is ridiculous. They can’t afford to put a food on the table, they can’t afford to put a roof over their heads, they can’t afford medical insurance and then to ask them to save for the future is unrealistic.

Lies And Half Truths Part II

McCain wrong on Palin earmarks
By Tom Hamburger and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
9:47 PM PDT, September 12, 2008

NEW YORK -- John McCain got it wrong Friday when he asserted that his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, had not requested any earmarks, the spending directives lawmakers insert in spending bills that McCain has vowed to eliminate.

Palin, in fact, requested $198 million in federal earmarks in February, including such expenses as $487,000 to fight obesity in Alaska and $4 million to develop recreational trails.

By day's end, the McCain campaign backed down from the claim the GOP presidential candidate made on the ABC television show "The View."

"Sen. McCain was in the throes of a discussion about her record of reforming government, which includes drastic cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "If he gave viewers a mistaken impression, it certainly wasn't intentional or without some basis in fact." (LA Times)

It seems to me that he has been doing that a lot lately, coming out with statements on national television and then quietly correcting them. Another case in point…

When asked again by the interviewer for a specific example of Palin's foreign policy experience, McCain flubbed Palin's talking point on energy.

McCain: She knows more about energy than probably anybody else in the Unites States. She is governor of a state [pause] that 20 percent of America's energy supply comes from there.

Leave aside the wildly overstated assertion that Palin is America's top expert on energy. McCain also claimed that the state produces "20 percent of America's energy supply," which is just wrong.

In 2005, Alaska produced 3.5 percent of America's energy supply. Presumably McCain meant to say that Alaska is responsible for 20 percent of America's domestic oil production (which is true).(Huffington Post)

Or...

Another unforced error occurred last month when McCain tried to present an image of being tough on lobbyists by banning active lobbyists from working on his campaign.

The rule forced several top strategists to quit the McCain campaign and instead focused attention on all the lobbyists who were working for McCain.(ABC News)

Or that...

Following her selection last month as John McCain's running mate, aides said Palin had traveled to Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq to meet with members of the Alaska National Guard. During that trip she was said to have visited a "military outpost" inside Iraq. The campaign has since repeated that Palin's foreign travel included an excursion into the Iraq battle zone.

But in reality…

Asked to clarify where she traveled in Iraq, Palin's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that "She visited a military outpost on the other side of the Kuwait-Iraq border."

It was the second such clarification in as many weeks of the itinerary of what Palin has called "the trip of a lifetime." Earlier, the campaign acknowledged that Palin made only a refueling stop in Ireland.
…
Palin also told ABC that she had traveled to Mexico and Canada. Her campaign had previously mentioned a Canada visit, but not a trip to Mexico. Comella said yesterday that Palin had visited Mexico on vacation, and Canada once last year. (The Boston Globe)

Did she visit an “Outpost” in Iraq, yes; but I do not think it gave her much foreign policy experience or visiting Mexico on vacation did either.

Also…

New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams
Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city to gather evidence.

Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the practice. (Huffington Post)

This all seems to me that this is part of their campaign strategy, makes all these grandiose statements and then they quietly retract them. The public remembers the first statement but never hears about or forgets the retraction. In addition, this is from a candidate who says he will change and reform Washington and from a candidate who voted 90% in favor of Bush’s policies.

Lies And Half Truths

I don’t know if you saw the McCain ad on TV about Obama’s educational policy where he accuses Obama of “one accomplishment legislation to teach a ‘comprehensive sex education’ for kindergartners.” In reality the legislation that “…Obama supported "age appropriate" sex-education for children as a means of teaching them what was proper or inproper touching, as well as to protect them against pedophiles…(Huffington Post)

McCain is using pure gutter politics!

The YouTube video highlights more of the lies McCain campaign has been spewing…


"It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls - a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. (Huffington Post)

Cindy McCain on Palin: she's qualified because 'Alaska is close to Russia'

I found this on Pam’s House Blend



I cannot believe that Mrs. McCain thinks that living close to Russia qualifies Gov. Palin for foreign policy experience.

McCain Picks Running Mate

McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate, campaign officials say

By LIZ SIDOTI | Associated Press Writer
11:20 AM EDT, August 29, 2008

DENVER (AP) _ John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate on Friday in a startling selection on the eve of the Republican National Convention.
…
She is a former mayor of Wasilla who became governor of her state in December, 2006 after ousting a governor of her own party in a primary and then dispatching a former governor in the general election.

McCain Picks Palin

The Fix
Chris Cillizza

Palin's political career began a decade later when she was elected to the Wasilla City Council and, four years after that, in 1996, she won the mayorship -- knocking off the incumbent by just a handful of votes.

So a 71 year old McCain picked a 44 year old with almost not political experience who will be only a heartbeat away from the Presidency.
Why did he pick her? Let us count the ways…

• To trump the Democrats by having a woman as the Vice President candidate
• She is a Christian Conservative
• She is anti-abortion, pro-life
• She is anti-gun control (A lifetime member of the NRA)
• She is pro-oil and she supports the drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge

McCain criticizes Obama for his lack of experiences well McCain will have a total neophyte as a running mate. If McCain is elected he would be the oldest president inaugurated, older than President Regan and we all remember how his health became an issues towards the end of his presidency.

Some Thoughts On The Mortgage Crisis

I want divest from Trans-rights for a moment and talk about the mortgage crisis.

Mainly I have many questions…
What is being done to real estate brokers who knowingly went along with fraudulent loans?
What is being done to mortgage brokers who knowingly went along with fraudulent loans?
What is being done to mortgage companies who knowingly approved and encouraged fraudulent loans?
Where were the auditors?
Where were the federal regulators?

I got hit bad in this fiasco, being of retirement age, I started converting many of my stocks in my 401(k) and IRA’s to fixed income bonds. I wanted my investments to be safe so I made sure my stockbroker only invested in AAA bonds, well now many of those bonds are junk bonds. I think that it is criminal what has happened, the real estate and mortgage broker falsified federal documents (the HUD loans applications) and the mortgage companies encouraged them.

A good number of years ago I got called for jury duty for the Federal Court in Hartford and one of the cases that they voir dire was for a person who falsified his income on his HUD loan application. Do you think that any of these brokers or companies executives will be arrested? Is the FBI investigating any of these frauds now?

The Republicans say they are for less government regulations, but most of those regulations were developed over time because business and industry showed that they could not be trusted. Just look at the last year, do you remember when at the planes were grounded because the FAA didn’t inspect the planes, instead they let the airline inspect their own planes. How many different food recalls have we had in the last twelve months because the FDA is lax inspecting the food? Now we are having all of these banks and mortgage companies failing because the FDIC did not do their job. Do you remember Enron? Where was the SEC then?

Who gets hurt when the regulators look the other way, we do.