Tag: 2008 presidential election (Page 2 of 2)

Why do you care if big banks go under?

September 15, 2008 / Josh / 2 Comments

Lehman Brothers Holdings filed for bankruptcy today. Check it out:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200809151141DOWJONESDJONLINE000528_FORTUNE5.htm

They’re a big bank with a lot of investments in real estate. They’ve gone under because of the housing crisis. Big deal, right? A bunch of rich people lost their money/jobs, what does that matter?

It actually matters a lot. We’re all intimately connected with the big banks of our country whether we want to be or not. Even if you don’t have a bank account, credit card, or investment you will still be affected by things like this. It’s a big domino effect. When a bank has huge investments and they go under, all those businesses and people they’re invested in have a good chance of going under as well. They can be bought up by the government or other banks and that might help but it also puts a lot of stress on the economy in general. If some other bank has to buy this failing bank, that’s a lot of bank A’s capital that can’t be used to invest in successful businesses. Suddenly loans are harder to get and interest rates go up. Businesses that are being invested in by these banks that are trying to save their bank brothers now have more overhead so they have incentive to raise the prices on their goods.

That’s right, some rich guys in a big building somewhere out there in corporate land, making irresponsible deals to try and make a quick buck, ultimately help to screw over those of us who are just trying to get by. So, get rid of the big evil banks right? No. The problem isn’t that someone is out there trying to make a buck from their buck, it’s that they’re doing so in shady ways. There’s a lot of benefit to be had by having huge businesses situated in our country. It increases the country’s capital and trading power with other countries. That can only be beneficial. But we need to make sure that the people in direct control of all this capital aren’t doing really stupid things like giving loans to thousands of people who they know can’t afford them.

This brings us, ultimately, back to the election. All this has happened under Bushy’s watch. Bush isn’t running again, thankfully, but McCain is. Now, if McCain circa 2000 was running, that may not be so bad. The problem is McCain circa 2008 is running. This is a guy who not so long ago told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. This is a guy that during the Republican primary debates said he didn’t have enough expertise in economics to answer a question. This is a guy who has been supporting Bush’s policies for the last few years 90% of the time. This is also a guy who tries to deny all of this when these facts are re-introduced to him.

What we have here is the perpetual sinking of the Titanic. Bear Stearns crashed, Lehman crashed, Fannie and Freddie were taken over. These are all financial institutions that, in previous eras, were considered impenetrable. So, try to give a shit. You can vote in November. You can vote for your members of congress soon too. It does make a difference.

UPDATE: Wow. I just found out that McCain, today of all days, repeated his belief that the fundamentals of the economy are good. Today, after Lehman Brothers collapsed, he claimed that the fundamentals are strong. Let me just repeat this for emphasis. John McCain, today, has said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Here’s the video.

Palin, an incoherent, babbling fool.

September 13, 2008 / Josh / 1 Comment

I was trying to avoid watching Charlie Gibson’s interview with Sarah Palin as it would only make her that much more prominent on YouTube but this thing is absurd. Seriously. I’m thoroughly confused about where she stands on every issue now. I watched all four videos and the parts of her answer that gave a glimpse into her thoughts made me think she’s a moron while the other parts make me think she has a complete inability to think coherently. This really is just a regular hockey mom disguised as a vice presidential candidate. Check it out and tell me if you understand a word of this mumbo jumbo.

Lies are awesome.

September 10, 2008 / Josh / 0 Comments

So far this election year hasn’t been too bad on the stretch-the-truth meter. I’ve been following it closely since the beginning of the primaries and, while there have been some out of context statements, pretty much every inaccurate claim has only been a small stretch of the truth. Now that we’re less than two months away from voting day it appears that blatant lies are the way to go. The Washington Post wrote a good article on this.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090903727.html

The article lists lies from both sides but, and maybe this is just a bias of mine, the McCain camp seems to have the big ones. Obama’s mistakes consisted of claiming that McCain wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years and saying that McCain thinks the fundamentals of the economy are sound. McCain really did say both of these things. The 100 years in Iraq statement is a bit out of context since he’s talking about keeping forces there in the same vein as we have in places like Germany. The problem with that is that Germany isn’t fighting off insurgents like Iraq. The situations are completely different. But still, it was a stretch of the truth on Obama’s part. And the sound economy statement, well, I don’t even know what McCain really thinks. He’s talked about how the economy is in trouble quite often but the statement he made about how it was doing well was made on Meet the Press some six months ago or so. On that episode he was being asked about his connections with Bush. He was basically pandering to the Bush crowd by saying how often he has agreed with Bush and how the economy is doing just fine because of him. So what’s his deal? Is he a Bush-y or is he a maverick? I really don’t know anymore.

On the lies from the McCain camp, here’s a list.

Palin turned down the bridge to nowhere. FALSE
– She actually campaigned in support of the bridge until she won her election for governor, then she decided she didn’t want the bridge. She also didn’t give back the money that congress gave her for said bridge.

Obama will raise taxes on everyone. FALSE
– Yeah, he’ll actually lower taxes more than McCain for everyone except those who make more than $250,000. It works out to be an increase for 10% of Americans and a cut for 81%. This one is so blatantly false and repeated so ridiculously often that I think it may be the biggest misconception of the year. I frequent a forum with a lot of people who are interested in politics and even they think Obama is going to raise everyone’s taxes. Did you see the percentage of seniors who think Obama will raise their taxes? 41%?! That’s insane given that seniors who make under $50,000 a year will literally pay $0, ZERO DOLLARS, in taxes. I’m sorry, but this one bothers me a lot.

This is going to take longer than I expected so I’ll leave the list at only two lies. There are plenty of others though. The point is, pay attention, check out the facts at places like FactCheck.org. This is why it’s important to vote. Do you want to end up with completely unfounded bullshit for the next four years? It makes a difference. There was a lot more opportunity in this country eight years ago, remember that.

And don’t forget to check out the debate on the 26th. I’m sure a lot of this will come out there.

Debates and God’s plan.

September 7, 2008 / Josh / 0 Comments

So has McCain given up on the secular vote?

That was McCain’s vice presidential candidate. It appears that if he is elected we will once again have God running our country. Seeing as I don’t believe in God, I find that frightening. If you do believe in God then maybe you feel different. Seriously though, you should vote if you haven’t already been convinced that doing so is important this year. Remember, there is a drastic difference between the world today and the world prior to 2001.

Oh yeah, the first presidential debate is September 26th. The first and only vice presidential debate is October 2nd. They’re usually a good place to start if you don’t know much about the candidates.

Vice presidential picks.

August 30, 2008 / Josh / 0 Comments

If you haven’t been following, the republican and democratic vice presidential nominees have both been chose. Obama picked Joe Biden while McCain chose Sarah Palin.

Biden is a long time senator. He actually ran for the presidential nomination but dropped out after performing badly in Iowa. I’m not particularly thrilled about him but he’s not terrible either. He just has a big mouth and knows how to use it. Anyway, here’s the pertinent info on him:

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/joe_biden.htm

Palin is the governor of Alaska. She’s held the position since 2006 and had some other minor executive branch experience prior to that. She seems pretty hardcore social conservative to me. She’s a member of the NRA, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, etc.. I actually don’t think she’s such a bad choice for McCain except that, to me, it highlights his desire to say and do what he thinks will get him elected instead of sticking to his guns. Basically, I believe he’s purposely chose a woman so that he could increase his chances of wooing disenfranchised Clinton supporters. Hell, Palin’s first speech contained praise for Hillary. Pander much? Anyway, I’m bias, but she does seem like a decent choice for getting McCain some conservative votes. Here’s the pertinent info on her:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm

I’m just trying to keep everyone up to date. Maybe some people who know me and aren’t interested in voting and whatnot will have a change of heart? Eh? Eh? Oh, and the democrats had their convention. Here’s Obama’s speech. It’s rather good.

Obama helps and his opponenets criticize.

June 16, 2008 / Josh / 0 Comments

I am amazed. By now I’m sure everyone is at least somewhat aware of all the flooding in Iowa. This is a pretty big deal. I’ve read that the flood levels are high enough that they’re hitting people who aren’t in high risk areas at all and aren’t likely to have flood insurance. Apparently this isn’t likely to be over yet either and more flooding is expected in other areas.

Normally I wouldn’t bring something like this up but there has been some heavy criticism of Barack Obama because he went to fill sand bags in Illinois in preparation for more flooding. Check it out:

His actions have spurred hatred and cynicism among those who already don’t like him. There are claims that he’s pandering. Apparently leading by example and helping those in need is now considered pandering. Then there are claims that he was only there for a photo op. According to an ABC News blog he filled at least 15 sandbags. This may not be enough for those that think the only way he can help is to spend 60 hours a week for a month filling bags but helping out in this way for even an hour can make a big difference. It can especially make a difference when your presence brings more attention to the issue and adds morale support to those in the area. While getting his photo taken in this situation probably does benefit his campaign, there’s a good reason for that. There are even more outrageous claims made to the detriment of Obama’s character but they’re not worth going through one by one.

It appears that we live in such a cynical world that even when a person is being directly helpful we can still find ways to try and tear them down. What’s the alternative to Obama’s actions? Do nothing? Sit back and tell the press when they ask you that those people are proud and can help themselves so there’s no reason for you to try and obtain more help for them as McCain has done? McCain was sitting in at a fund raiser in California while all this was going on and didn’t even have the decency to mention the issue on his website where Obama put a link right on the opening page that went to the donations section of the American Red Cross site. Or, instead of doing what Obama is doing, politicians could follow Bush’s example and just fly over the area like Bush did during Katrina. That helps immensely, right? Katrina was handled effectively, right?

Seriously, lets all take a step back and question our own cynicism. I’ve been guilty of it myself on numerous occasions but I no longer think it’s worth it. Sure, you might get burned from time to time but the alternative is to live in a world where you have to constantly be paranoid that everyone is out to dupe you.

Please please please…

May 21, 2008 / Josh / 0 Comments

… vote in November. Seriously. You can either have this:

Or you can have this:

Now, granted, this is comparing Obama’s best to some of McCain’s worst but Obama’s worst is manufactured issues taken out of context and blown so far out of proportion that you could see it from space. For instance, the religious (no pun intended) devotion to the Reverend Wright issue. Also, Obama’s comments about why people are bitter about Washington’s ability to help them financially. Apparently this somehow means that he’s en elitist who doesn’t understand religion or guns or immigration. To be fair, it’s the equivalent of thinking that when McCain said that we might be in Iraq for 100 years that he actually meant the war will be going on like it has been for 100 years (although McCain is a bit naive to think that Iraq is anything like Japan or any of the other countries where we have a presense and there aren’t any insurgents).

Even if you want to look at this just on issues. Do you believe in trickle down economics? Vote for McCain. Do you think that holding a grudge is a good way to solve your problems with someone? Vote for McCain. Do you think health insurance is just fine how it is? Vote for McCain. Do you think veterans shouldn’t have more than a minute amount of their college education paid for when they finish fighting a war? Vote for McCain.

I won’t get into details about all these things but do yourself a favor, check their sites and voting records and see which one makes sense to you. This is going to make a huge difference in our lives.

Obama
Site: www.barackobama.com
Voting Record: www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Barack_Obama.htm

McCain
Site: www.johnmccain.com
Voting Record: www.ontheissues.org/Senate/John_McCain.htm