Obama Trails by 28 Points; Third Parties Garner 32%

Last week I began taking a poll to measure voters’ conscience votes against their actual planned votes.

Conscience Vote Poll Getting Suprising Results

The results are very surprising so far. Add you voice to this research and view the results.

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Who Would You REALLY Vote for?

I am running a poll to measure voters’ real Presidential preferences versus who they plan to vote for. Please add your voice to this important poll.

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McCain and Obama Continue to Mislead on Crisis

Well, I watched every last word of the last night’s US Presidential debate. I waited and waited and waited for THE WORD to come out of someone’s mouth. THE WORD is DERIVATIVE.

There was more myth weaving by both candidates that the current US and global economic crisis was caused by poor Americans buying more house than they could afford.

This is absolutely, unabated nonsense and both Senator McCain and Senator Obama know it. We need to use our common sense to unravel this situation. It was not bad mortgages that caused this global economic situation it was unregulated, unethical trading on the world’s financial markets using these mortgages as an asset.

Now these financial renegades and the politicians they own are trying to shift that blame off on average people. Stop letting the power brokers blame us for their mess. These are the same people who continue to tell us we must fight interventionist wars everywhere on the planet.

Their greatest magic trick is to continue to find ways to blame all of us for what they have done. They continue to get us to fight wars – you heard more of this last night as well – that are not in anyone’s interest but the power brokers.

Those assets were packaged and sold and resold several times; financial companies collecting fees with each resale. That practice also goes beyond just mortgages.

McCain directly lied during the debate claiming that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the “match the lit this fire.” He knows this is not the what really caused this melt down and his credibility must be called into question, if he continues making this claim. Freddie and Fannie were two of a host of irresponsible players in this crisis, but far from the only ones.

Both candidates, taking all the Wall Street money they take, continue to avoid explaining what a DERIVATIVE is and why that is what has caused this crisis.

Until these guys are forced to explain THE TRUTH about our situation, they will continue lying about it. We are seeing an upward transfer of wealth from the people of the world to the bankers who led them into crisis.

If these guys cannot tell us the truth about the problem, how can we trust them to solve it? The answer is we cannot. Well, we saw yesterday that this is going to be a fox guarding the hen house situation. Secretary Henry Paulson yesterday named one of his former underlings at Goldman Sachs to oversee the BAILOUT (not “rescue”).

We need leaders to tell us the truth now. Barack Obama and John McCain failed last night.

Senate Commits $700 Billion Sellout of the American People

Amid increasing pressure from business lobbyists and Wall Street, the U.S. Senate voted 74-25 to pass the $700 billion bailout bill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce increased its pressure on Congress after Wall Street’s record plunge and tightening credit that threatens the flow of business.

The Wall Street extortion package – riding a wave fear mongering – had created panic in the business community that credit was going to dry up. The Chamber caved just like Congress.

The fear along with a massive PR campaign to reshape Americans’ view of the warmed over Paulson Plan created an environment where Senators felt safe in passing it.

Despite overwhelming popular opposition, the Senate ignored the will of the American people and passed the bill. In another example of “we know better than you”, Washington and Wall Street teamed up for an historic fleecing of the American people.

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) was representative of the shameful disdain for the popular will. She admitted on the floor of the Senate that 85,000 of 91,000 communications to her office were against the bailout. However, she arrogantly lectured that the people don’t understand.

Senator, we understand just fine. We understand that the very people who created this crisis are extorting $700 billion from the American taxpayer under threat that they will crash the economy. We understand that our elected officials lack the discernment or the backbone to stand up to them on our behalf.

We understand that worthless assets are worthless today and worthless tomorrow. The promise of getting our money back is an empty promise designed to keep us calm.

We understand that not only did the Senate pass this bill against our explicit objections, but decided to make it Christmas too for everyone’s pet projects.

This whole fiasco has simply demonstrated again why this nation is in desperate need of drastic reform at the top. The vote this fall should be Senate challengers 34 incumbent Senators 0.

Maybe the House will still stop this insanity. I’m not holding my breath. They like Christmas too. We need banking reform not a massive government bailout.

Wall Street’s Blame Game – Warren Buffett: “Heaven Help Us”

There is no limit to the depths Wall Street will sink to shift responsibility for the current financial crisis. First, they demand to stick the taxpayer with the bill and now they are seeking to place the blame on Congress.

Congress is to blame for many things in our society, but the responsibility for this crisis rests squarely on Wall Street’s irresponsibility period end of story.

Today world-famous investor Warren Buffett said:

“The only thing that counts in the economic world today is the U.S. Congress. They hold the fate of the U.S. economy for the next few years in their hands. And I think they’ll do the right thing. I have great confidence — I mean, when they recognize what the problem is, they will do the right thing. They won’t do the perfect thing. Nobody can do the perfect thing.

Later on we’ll let the historians decide who to blame. I could go around saying I told you so on this or that. But it doesn’t make a difference.”

Does this sound familiar? It’s the same shift-the-debate-tactic used when the war in Iraq didn’t go the way the Bush Administration promised.

This tactic says never mind the reasons or who is responsible. Now our hand is forced because we are in crisis. We can sort out who was right and who was wrong later (read never). We must stay in the war or bailout Wall Street now. We’ll figure this all out later (read never).

Notice its always the same people who caused the problem telling us not to look into it any more closely? They know we’re mostly asleep and mostly forgetful. They know if they can scare you into acting now you will forget all about it in a few weeks.

This strategy is used to hide and obscure grand criminality over and over.

Wake up, America. Mr. Buffett’s statement and those of Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week say it all. Give us the money and don’t ask any questions. We promise to get to the bottom of this later.

They know very well that the markets are all about confidence and psychology. They have saturated the planting of the idea that if they don’t get their money, the markets will crash. They probably will. They’ve repeated it enough to create that expectation.

The blame for this situation lies with Wall Street. The cost of it will affect us all, but should be borne by Wall Street.

$700 Billion Bail Out or Economic Take Over?

UPDATE: Hope remains. The deal is off again! Perhaps Congress will yet shut this bailout down.

Print and Spend Economy and Secretary Paulson’s Conflict of Interest

Welcome to the Print and Spend economy. In the Print and Spend economy, we just gear up the printing presses to print more dollars and buy the funny money securities from the Wall Street craps game. Worthless paper buying worthless paper and calling it commerce. The taxpayers get to buy these worthless securities thanks to Congress’ apparent sell out of the American people.

In the Print and Spend economy, we make a man – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson – the chief architect of a program to bailout the industry where he has been a central figure. He was CEO of Goldman Sachs – a firm at the heart of this scandal – until two years ago. Forbes says he earned $16.4 million just two years ago and $34 million the year before that. He is now the White House’s point man on this bailout. Gee, why do you suppose he is against oversight or investigation?

I am not claiming he personally did anything wrong. Nonetheless, this is a conflict of interest of epoch proportions. Where is the accountability? Paulson’s conflict of interest has not even been broached in this process. He should have nothing to do with this process or the negotiations about it, period!

He is only Treasury Secretary for four more months. Where do you suppose he is going after that? Back to Wall Street to benefit from this bailout? How many of his former colleagues and business partners are going to benefit from this bailout?

Now the purveyors of this system are demanding that you bail them out with your tax dollars or they will bring you the depression they have created.

Congress, according the Associated Press, has caved in to the pressure from Wall Street. They were given scenarios of immediate and apocalyptic depression, if they did not act. Stocks will surge and there will be momentary glee. However, reality has only been delayed not eliminated.

Shocking Attitude Toward Oversight and Accountability

I’ve done my duty as a citizen these past two days and watched Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s appearances before the Senate and House Banking committees.

What I have seen is Congress members on both sides of the aisle asking for oversight, accountability, and greater control of this $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. Yet, they lack the nerve to demand it.

What they have received in return  from Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke is defensiveness and intimidating language.

Here are my observations of what they have been saying and doing. We can only assume the implemented plan will contain many of these attitudes and limit oversight.

• They maintain they need all this money (and probably more) and they need it right now.
• They reject all reasonable proposals by Congress members to oversee, slow down, or reason through this process.
• They have resorted to fear tactics to scare the Congress and the people into thinking this is the only way out of economic catastrophe.
• They have provided no specifics on how they would implement their plan or what they would do with this unprecedented economic authority.
• They are not promising this will solve the problem and they won’t be back.
• They are resisting attempts to add regulation now along with the bailout. They promise that can be discussed later.
• They continue to blame this on bad mortgages (blame the people) when the real issue is the way Wall Street leveraged those mortgages and sold them ten times to Sunday to line their pockets.
• They want to be above the law, gain immunity for their buddies, and give the people no recourse through Congress or the courts.

Now the same people who caused this mess and the bigger, still undisclosed mess behind it, are going to receive their $700 billion blank check as a down payment on this crisis they created.

Congress should have said no, no, no. This is a moment of truth when some semblance of democracy could have been re-established in this country and end the 95-year reign of the banking cartel.

In the coming days, President Bush and presidential wannabes John McCain and Barack Obama will hail this “breakthrough agreement” to save our economy. They will not cease the foreign policies or monetary policies that have landed us in this position.

We will get more of the same. It’s just about to cost us a whole lot more.

Today’s common sense question is this: “Is this just a bailout or is it an absolute takeover?

Give Us the $700 Billion and Give it to Us Now!

That was the message from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in their appearance before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

Paulson and Bernanke maintained (numerous times) that they supported transparency and oversight. They simply had no tolerance for Senators suggesting ways to provide it.

What was clear is that Treasury and The Fed are making this up as they go along. Their message was, “give us the money, don’t ask questions, and we’re going to figure this out.”

The pair maintained that their plan was meant to save Main Street not Wall Street. Their testimony was peppered with ominous, but unclear warnings of impending financial doom, if the money (all of it) was not appropriated immediately.

Paulson was short on details of the planned intervention when pressed by numerous Senators from both sides of the aisle.

Senator Jim Bunning (R- KY)  was the most blunt in his assessment. He said:

“I know there are problems in the financial markets, and I share a lot of the same concerns that our witnesses do. However, the Paulson plan will not fix those problems. The Paulson plan will not help struggling homeowners pay their mortgages. The Paulson plan will not bring a stop to the slide in home prices. But the Paulson plan will spend 700 billion taxpayer dollars to prop up and clean up the balance sheets of Wall Street. This massive bailout is not the solution, it is financial socialism, and it is un-American.”

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) probed why Paulson would not accept a tiered approach to the funding.

SCHUMER: Why couldn’t you ask us for $150 billion and, on January 15th or January 20th, we would come back, we’d assess how this worked, and grant some more money if it’s really working? Maybe, you know, the markets will have stabilized and you actually will have made money. Why ask for the full $700 billion? I never thought I’d think that $150 billion is a low sum of money, but compared to $700 billion it is, and I think it would make people sit not easily, but at least a little easier.

PAULSON: I’ll give you my answer, Senator. I think you got at it when you said “when we come back in January,” because what we need to do is we need to stabilize the system, and we need to — this is on market — based on market — we need market confidence, and we need the tools to work with.

Now, of course, we plan to do this in tranches. And again, as a number of people have said, this is not an expenditure — I know that this doesn’t fit into your — your outlay system in Congress. The taxpayer is on the hook.

SCHUMER: Could you live with less? I think people would feel better if it were — if we did this and could come back and reassess it. As I said, it’s uncharted waters, so I’m not asking you to support it now.

But again, could the system work if we put in the legislation, say, this is the first tranche, and by January 15th, say — just pick a date — Congress will come back and reexamine?

PAULSON: I think that would be a grave mistake.

The bottom line of this hearing was that the Senators were trying to do the job we all expect of them. Paulson and Bernake were long on promises and assurances and short on details and agreeing to specific ideas to think this process through or provide meaningful oversight.

Something does not smell right about this whole situation. We may well be on the brink of a major economic downturn, but all the bailouts in the world cannot change the facts of an economy built on mountains of debt.

Today’s common sense question is this: If we give the Bush Administration it’s bailout, where are the guarantees that the behaviors that got us here won’t continue? There are none. The message is nearly extortionist in nature. Give us the money we want, give it to us now, or else!

Vote None of the Above or Vote Them Out in 2008

The time has come. The election has come. For decades, we Americans have complained about Washington D.C. We’ve wanted change, but we have not been willing to act on it. We loathe Congress, but LOVE our Congress person.

We coddle ourselves by believing that OUR party is not the one at fault. It’s that OTHER evil party that is to blame for all our problems. This idea is tirelessly promoted by partisan ego maniacs that populate American talk radio and the bonified liberal media.

In the eyes and rhetoric of these outlets, one party is ALWAYS right and one party is ALWAYS wrong. They have divided us into red and blue. Divided we are conquered and we will stay conquered. The world is not red and blue. The world is purple.

We, election after election, keep sending our Ds and Rs back to Congress and the White House hoping maybe this time something will change. Are you tired of it yet? Have you figured it out yet? It’s not changing. The social issues that supposedly prompt most Americans to march in lock step for one party or the other never get resolved.

Why would the Democrats actually do anything about health care or poverty? What would they run on if not for those things. They lose the reasons you vote for them to solve them. The Democrats fashion themselves the party of the people. When have they really demonstrated it?

This party is accurately described as the “Tax an Spend” party. This party wants to tax us into oblivion to pay for its pet projects.

I say the same about Republicans and abortion. They controlled Congress, The White House, or both for last 12 years. Five of the nine Supreme Court justices are Republican-appointed. What did they do? Nothing. They went from the party for a strong national defense to the party for global war and domestic surveillance.

This party is accurately described as the “Borrow and Spend” party. They lower taxes to get your votes and then borrow more money from the Federal Reserve and run up deficits and debts.

You keep electing them based on issues like this and they play you and play you.

The current financial crisis and mini wars all over the world are examples of how the American people have lost control. While neither party is always right or always wrong, they are equally to blame. What are they doing today? They are doing the only thing they know how to do. Point the finger at the other party and play the blame game.

Both parties have bought into this idea that we print more money and spend ourselves out of anything. Both parties have bought off on the need for American bases in 160 countries.

We need change and reform. The problem is neither “The Reformer” John McCain nor “The Changer” Barack Obama really represent those characteristics.

As for Congress, I can only think of two Congress members (ironically, at opposite ends of the political spectrum) who deserve to be re-elected – Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich. They have spoken out and stood for the Constitution. The vote this fall should be 433-2 in House elections and 34-0 in Senate elections.

Third parties are a long-term option, but they cannot get us where we need to go this year. We need to send an unequivocal message to Washington. We need Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to band together and make it clear we “Do Not Endorse Their Messages” any longer.

We either need to throw them all out or vote none of the above this year. The ballot box is the peaceful means our Founders gave us to make change. It’s time to clean house. If your district or your state winds up voting for a D or R instead of the other, SO WHAT. The issues facing the country are bigger than these two parties.

Join me this November. Either vote NONE OF THE ABOVE or against EVERY federal incumbant.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to really, once and for all “Throw the bums out!”

Bush, Congress Bow to Federal Reserve on $700 Billion Bailout

Here comes a massive government bailout of Wall Street. Guess who gets the bill.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” say Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (a former Goldman-Sachs executive), President Bush, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake. “Don’t read it, Congress. Just sign the check.”

“Heaven help us,” exclaimed Paulson on his tour of the Sunday morning talking head shows, “if Congress fails to pass this.”

Speaking of the house of cards the U.S. economy rests upon, President Bush said, “So when one card started to go, we were worried about the whole deck going down, and so therefore moved, and moved hard. This is Wall Street plus Main Street.”

Bush continued, “Well, my first instinct wasn’t to lay out a huge government plan. My first instinct was to let the market work until I realized, upon being briefed by the experts (meaning those asking for the bailout), of how significant this problem became.”

Nothing but the “Roll-over Democrats” stand between Wall Street and their bailout. I say roll-over because this Democratic Congress has proven itself to be all huff, puff, and roll over on matters of importance. They are huffing and puffing this morning, but they will rollover.

If you’re a taxpayer checking out at the government expenditure store, here is a list of items that might not be in your budget.

• $700 billion (for openers) Federal bailout of irresponsible banks and insurers.
• $800 billion (to date) for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
• $431 billion (annually) interest on the federal debt (in layman’s terms that’s the minimum payment on the Federal Government credit card owed to the Federal Reserve).

That’s $1.8 trillion that doesn’t fix one road, fund one school, or do anything productive for anyone. That works out to about $6,000 for every man, woman, and child in The United States.

Saturday Congress, bowing The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, is going to expand the Federal Debt Ceiling from $10.6 trillion (about $60,000 for every man, woman, and child) to $11.3 trillion (about $62,500 for every man, woman, and child). Today Congress is poised to pass a “no questions asked” appropriation to make a downpayment (because that is all it is) on the Wall Street bailout.

Congress is putting its stamp of approval on the current list of bailouts and putting the taxpayers on the hook for those expenses and all the unknowns and unknowables that go with that commitment. No one knows how much the actual bill will be.

There are said to be $516 trillion (that’s trillion with a T) in derivatives out there according to investment guru Warren Buffett. These are Las Vegas-style bets made by these companies we are about to bail out that could fail.

Here’s some perspective. The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – all the goods and services produced in the United States in one year is about $13.8 trillion. The global GDP is about $54 trillion annually. Mind you, Buffett warns his figures may be low. Even if we take the $516 trillion – which is nothing but funny money buying more funny money because it that much money or real assets don’t even exist – that’s more than 30 years’ worth of US GDP and almost 10 years’ worth of global GDP.

This is what your President, your Congress, and the unconstitutional Federal Reserve are setting the American taxpayer up to potentially pay.

Every American should be outraged at these companies. They should be outraged that government went to sleep at the wheel and allowed this to happen. They should be outraged that they are now going to hand the bill to the US tax payer. That is what your elected officials are about to do today. Hand you, your children, grandchildren, and beyond the bill for this mess.

This quote sums it up.

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

That’s what we are facing today. Where is the accountability? Where is the outrage? Where are investigations and indictments?

It’s like we are tellers at one of these banks and they just walked up to our window and handed us a robbery note and ordered us to fill their bag with cash. Congress and President Bush are in the back right now filling their bags with our money.

Unbelievable!

Today’s common sense question is this: Do you think for one second these bailed out institutions are going to show the taxpayers who bailed them out the same leniency?

Wall Street Soars on News That You Are Bailing it Out

Here’s a question. What’s the difference between two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner and the new government program to bailout Wall Street? The answer: lipstick.

We can all go to back to sleep. All is well! The media, the government, and Wall Street are saying so. That must mean it’s true. These are the same folks, of course, who have told us numerous times over the past several years that the housing crisis, the credit crisis, and everything else was well under their expert control. Gosh, they weren’t right about that, were they?

Anyway, Wall Street is leaping for joy this morning on news that its bad debt is going to be passed on to you, your children, and your grandchildren. The Dow climbed more than 400 points in early trading. The talking heads – the same ones who tell us outsourcing our jobs is good – are on TV acclaiming the brilliance of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

That sound you hear is the fleecing machine gearing up. I’m sure you can guess who is about to get a trim. In addition to your own mortgage, you are now on the hook for bad mortgages and all the Las Vegas-style bets Wall Street used them to place over the past few years.

Well, maybe John McCain or Barack Obama will stand up for us. I mean, after all, they do want us to vote for them in just a few weeks. The two main party presidential candidates – awash in Wall Street money and influence – are applauding the move.

In fact John McCain, being the small government guy he is – has come out with a proposal for a new massive government agency to assume responsibility for banking debts. He’s calling it the Mortgage and Financial Institutions (MFI) trust.

Look at who is running McCain’s campaign. Who do you suppose wrote this proposal? Wall Street critics? This seems to be a proposal aimed at allowing deregulation to continue, but offering government intervention before irresponsibility reaches crisis.

Mr. Obama, for his part, seems as unsure what to say or do as he did during the Russia-Georgia situation last month. On the positive side, though, he was voted the presidential candidate more voters would like to watch a football game with.

The shell game with America’s debt continues for one more dance. Now that the government – I mean you, your children, and grandchildren – has assumed responsibility for the irresponsibility of the banks and insurance companies, everything is all better. They can continue doing what they were doing and further leverage every penny ten times to make a profit.

All this move does is allow us to deny the reality of the massive debt tsunami we have created in the United States for a little longer. Well, maybe the Chinese will keep lending us some of the money we send them everyday to make everything we use. Maybe our friends the Japanese and our new (again) enemies the Russians will do the same.

I’m pretty sure there was one presidential candidate this year discussing these kinds of things. I believe his name was Ron Paul, but McCain, Romney, Huckabee, and the media were too busy snickering at him in the debates to listen. Maybe people will listen now.

My common sense question today is this: If my credit score is now better than my bank’s, can I lower my interest rates and charge them fees for doing business with me? No, I guess those things only work one way.