Where the Left Went Wrong and Took Obama with Them

...why give her a forum here (and for money?)?

 ...at generalizing.

Also, have you any nonpartisan sources to back up some of your claims?  Such as the allegations of taking money from foreign nationals? 

I believe your claim that you are a "liberal/Democrat" is false.  Period.  Everything that you've raised in your blog post above goes twice and thrice for the McCain/Palin ticket.  

I'm not an apologist for Clinton's deregulation antics, not by any means.  The deregulation fiasco pushed through a Republican Congress by Gramm and Leach should have been completely stomped on and obliterated.  We've been through that before in another thread.  The Democrats missed an opportunity to smack Republicans hands away from the Wall Street Cookie jar.  Agreed.

The Current Population Survey has ALWAYS relied on polling data.  Since the 1940s.  You can read more here ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_Population_Su... ) and here ( http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/are012/unempmsr.ht... ).  Show me the statistics that you have seen which prove it is less accurate and not more and we'll talk.  I LOVE to talk about data and research.  Bring it on.

Would you please list the Republicans who you know that aren't doing any of the following:

in bed with the wealthy and powerful
violating the civil and human rights of
American citizens,
increasing the poverty and suffering of our fellow
citizens, and
placing the true control in the hands of corporate and
foreign interests.

We'd all love to know who they are. The closest one I can think of his Chuck Hagel and he is definitely an exception to the rule.  Since he is an ex-investment banker and a millionaire several times over from Vanguard, he is probably quite familiar with the good life though.

My other remarks about Obama still stand and I have sources for all of them.  Please give me your sources for your disparaging remarks about Obama/Biden and we'll chat about the specifics.  Otherwise, you are either speculating or grandstanding.

If you have Wampanoag ancestry, are you for Indian gaming?  Then it doesn't surprise me that you are for McCain.  He's one of its biggest supporters and helped to create the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

How is Orwell, anyway?

Not so fast, yourself,  miteegirl.

Yes, democratic leaders should have fought against deregulation, and as far as Clinton goes (either of them), he did a lot more than "listen to the advice", he laid the groundwork for half of what George W. Bush has been able to get away with. If Clinton hadn't pushed through NAFTA (illegally, by the way. I didn't pass the constitutional test of achieving a clear  2/3 majority when it was voted on in the senate, and as such has no legal standing, yet Bill Clinton signed it anyway. He's guilty of the same dirty tricks Bush has done, ignoring the seperation of powers, and the rules in the Constitution and Bill of Rights).

Bill Clinton has greased the rails for corporate and foreign elites, and since leaving office, he has been  putting dirty back door deals together with the same corporate and foreign elite, and lining his pockets as a result. Bill Clinton changed how the US counts the unemployed. We used to use the stats from the Department of Labor, Clinton pushed through a system that relies on misleading polling data. Private, third party firms call a selection of households and ask how many people in the home are employed. If two parents, and even a child, are employed, that counts as three employed workers, even more if there are multiple children who work. It doesn't reflect the realities across the board. We no longer keep track of those collecting unemployment or those who fall off the roles. Data provided by the GAO hints that our true unemployment rate is closer to 26%.

I'm not talking about anti-corporate, I'm talking about democrats who are corrupt and in bed with the wealthy and powerful.. there is no balance about what they are doing.. they are violating the civil and human rights of American citizens, increasing the poverty and suffering of our fellow citizens, and placing the true control in the hands of corporate and foreign interests.

There is NOTHING wrong with capitalism, however we need to regulate interests that have the power to impact our country, like banking, oil, food safety and health care, and other such thing that can have an impact on our lives.

I grew up in a democratic party that would have had the guts to inform corporate interests that would have sought to outsource jobs or import foreign workers, that if their loyality was not to the US, they should be treated like a foreign country, and pay heavy tariffs to import into our country. That any foreign entity that wished to benefit from doing business with the US, should hire American citizens and not seek to displace our people. That would NEVER have tried to diminish our national security and sovereignty, but seeking to put us under global (corporate) governance. No politician has the right to do that in the US.

What you're excusing isn't balancing anything, and what democrats have sought to do over the past ten years hasn't been leveling the playing field. They have sold out the American citizen worker, and sought to take away, even the jobs that weren't outsourceable. They are emulating the Roman Empire, where they denied their poorer citizens the right to work, and replaced them with cheaper foreign labor. History tells us what happened from that. Americans are hard workers, but all the hard work in the world will not allow an American to achieve what we used to be able to, because now democratic leaders want to drag down wages, and erode the civil rights of citizens. They are seeking to impose the status quo of the third world in our country. The democratic party has regressed to being once again, the party of slavery.

When a country has a declining pool of jobs, and a severe, long term, un/under employment problem, the solution is not to increase competition for said declining pool of jobs, and drag down the wage standards for those jobs. Yet democrats are doing just that. They espouse the lies of the US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, "worker shortages", "jobs Americans won't do". The democrat party I grew up with would never have acted in such a way.

Nor is there any desperate need in Latin America for it's citizens to come here. Mexico, for example is now the 14th wealthiest country in the world, it has a large number of billion and millionaires, a large and thriving middle class (a tax base) a housing boom, and zero national debt. Mexico co-wrote NAFTA and had promised to enact reform, but it's avoided doing so, when it became aware that the US wasn't enforcing it's immigration laws and protecting it's borders. The president of the largest bank in the country, the Banco de Mexico, has stated that  as long as Mexicans enter the US illegally, and the US allows it, the Mexican government will be able to avoid enacting reforms. Nor are Mexicans starving, or suffering. They come here to earn a higher wage standard than they would at home, but the cost of living there is much cheaper, radically cheaper. They do not depend on coming here to survive, they  do so based on greed, a desire to own a bigger house in their own country, drive an SUV and have lots of luxury items. For this, people like you attack struggling poor Americans as being racist and xenophobic merely for attempting to petition their government to seek redress, because they can't afford to be displaced from their jobs. It's a violation of civil rights to demean, demonize and dehumanize citizens who attempt to speak in the interests of their rights when their government violates those rights.

This "smaller contributer" claim is as much a joke now, as it was when "Ho Ho" Dean (the Vermont governor who dumped radioactive waste from Yankee Nuclear on a poor, small southwestern town, destroyed access to health care for the poor who needed it in Vermont, destroyed for a time the public education system, who was caught taking money from corporate factory farms who were polluting ground water, air and soil in Vermont, but he was crowned "progressive" after the Vermont legislature did the heavy lifting and passed civil unions legislation, and when presented with a fait accompli, he had no choice but to sign it.. "progressives" are morons when it comes to educating themselves on the realities and issues, if not, then they simply do not care) used the line.

Obama has taken larger sums from the corporate elites, especially on Wall Street. Two of his friends/"advisors" are responsible, in part for the current banking crisis that we're forced to bail out. Obama has taken campaign contributions, in violation of federal law, from foreign nationals, and is under investigation by the FEC. He was most recently found to have done so at a fundraiser in Silicon Valley, when he took millions from Indian nationals alone. There's nothing of balance there, no leveling of any playing field, Obama is working to turn the hands of the clock back, when a small group of affluent people ran roughshod over the rest. As to Joe Biden, his claims of being a "lunch pail" democrat are a farce, he grew up in an affluent family, and went to private schools, never soiled his hands doing any kind of "lunch pail" job. He's a politician who has been up the backside of the corporate elite he wrote the latest bankruptcy reform law that made it harder for Americans who have lost jobs, faced critical illnesses from declaring bankruptcy.

Anyone who is fighting for Obama/Biden, is putting their children's futures on the auction block, because they won't have one under such an administration. This liberal demorat is voting for McCain/Palin, and so are a lot of other democrats I know throughout the midwest and the northeast, and we're campaigning against Obama/Biden as well.

Just to back up my point, here is the analysis ( http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1... ) of a mortgage counselor helping a Marine, Richard Campbell, (our own military!!!), understand why his loan became such a mess.  He's requested the loan papers that the original loan broker turned into the lender:

Kerry Campbell: Here [your loan papers are] saying your base employment income is 16,250 a month.  

Richard Campbell: Laughs.  Wha?!

Kerry Campbell: That means your salary, on a yearly basis, would be $195,000 to be exact. 

Richard Campbell: I wish.  In 2005, right, and they used my 2005 taxes, I was making $37,000 that year. 

Adam Davidson: Did you know that number until now?

Richard Campbell: no

Adam Davidson: To me, that is shocking. It's not shocking to you?

Kerry Campbell: That’s outrageous. But it's a common thing. It's worlds apart, reality and what's on these documents.  

Adam Davidson: Another thing the papers reveal: How much that creative broker made. $18,500 dollars. As Kerry says, that's 18,000 reasons to falsify Richard's mortgage documents and to put him in a house he can't afford. Richard actually qualified for a Veterans Administration loan at a really good rate, and he had money to put down, but the broker convinced him to take a mortgage that turned out to be much worse, with a much higher commission.

Mortgage brokers were walking around East Flatbush, knocking on doors, telling just about anybody: Hey, we can get you a house. If you have a house, we can get you a big home equity line of credit. This happened in poor neighborhoods all over the country. And, while the FBI and other law enforcement folks, say they don't have the  exact numbers, it's clear that fraud--like the fraud on Richard's application--was  ubiquitous.  

No doubt, the Democrats rolled over when they should have fought the Republicans on deregulation.  Admitted.  And Clinton didn't help any by listening to the advice of 

I don't think all Democrats are anti-corporate.  They are more PRO-BALANCE.  That is, that the decisions they have made and the legislation that they have traditionally supported tries to aim closer to the ideals of balancing the needs of capitalism AND the majority of ordinary American.  

Closer to the philosophy of Robert Reich ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich ) ("So let’s help families stay in their homes and continue to pay mortgages that are refinanced so they can afford to pay them. And let’s have
better financial oversight so the next time money is cheap, mortgage lenders don’t shove it into the hands of people who don’t know what they’re getting into.")

...than David "Trickle Down" Stockman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stockman ).

Balancing seeks to level the playing field so that anyone truly CAN make it to the top if they work hard enough.  Laissez-faire economics favors the already wealthy and already well-connected, even if they are lazy, criminally-inclined, or morally bankrupt.

Democrats are more inclined to protect the every investor or homeowner who might be suckered into a loan where the loan broker messed with the numbers just to get the loan approved and then disappeared after taking their commission, leaving the homeowner with a loan that they were reassured that they could pay.  (It happened ( http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1... ).)

Obama has taken more campaign contributions from ordinary donors than any other candidate in history.  His ratio of corporate donations to citizen donations is outstanding in terms of balance between ordinary citizens and corporations.  WAY better ratio than McCain.  Even the military is support Obama over McCain 6 to 1. ( http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-dep... )

I'll take the level playing field, thanks.  I think we owe it to our country, as Americans, to strive for balance, even if it means that it is more complex and takes longer.  If not for just me, than for my kids.

I'm fighting for Obama/Biden.

The far left doesn't hold the higher ground, it has shown all of us exactly how little respect they have for civil and human rights considerations. They are in collusion with the same corporate interests that the far right has been, and for the same reason, a blind lust for total power and totalitarian control. I'm a liberal democrat, and have defended my party against the negative stereotypes that have been laid at it's door for decades now, but no more.. I now recognize that there was some basic truth to those stereotypes.

The left has been spitting in the face of working poor and middle class citizens, cozying up to the US Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, the historical enemies of the minimum wage, workplace and environmental protections. All because you're punch drunk on your utopian dream of "multiculturalism". Too blind drunk on your pipe dreams, you laugh off the fact that as citizens are further displaced by the corporate's illegal alien workers, and that has mean long term unemployment and underemployment, declining wages, over burdened schools, a less solveable health care crisis, dire poverty, hunger, malnutrition, anemia and homelessness. There are now tent cities swelling all across the country, because citizens can not afford to keep a roof over their heads. But has the left even cared about that? No! They prattle away about a few pet issues. They attack and persecute anyone who dares to attempt to speak truth against their presumption of power.

I have watched so called "progressives" attack working poor citizens, black, brown and white, who try to reasonably state their experiences of being discriminated against because they were citizens. That is fascism.

 Obama is in the pockets of the corporate elite. He's taken millions from Wall Street, corporate and foreign interests.. so much for his claims of not being in the pockets of lobbyists. He refuses to address the fact that if citizens can't work, they can't pay to survive, let alone the tax burden that is going to be pushed on their shoulders for this bailout. He was asked at a recent rally if he would be willing to impose a moratorium on immigration and visas to help citizens get back their jobs, and he refused to answer it. He had earlier stated that he wants to open the borders wide and increase immigration. That means that he doesn't care about American citizens ability to survive, to have a wage standard that allows them to support themselves in this country. He rationalizes the status quo of subjugation and corporate totalitarian control. I no longer believe he is a credible choice for the office of chief public servant of the American people.

I'm no fan of McCain, but I believe the democratic party needs to be punished by having power ripped from their hands. Senator Harry Reid, and Rep Nancy Pelosi demand amnesty, and massive increases in foreign worker visas. Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, last week demanded that the democrats in congress push through expansion in NAFTA, Rep. Zoe Lofgren wants to unleash 550,000 new foreign visas, Obama supports the Columbian and Korean free trade deals, despite his claims previously of being against them. His advisors have stated that his claims of being willing to renegotiate NAFTA were only rhetoric and his support for reducing outsourcing, etc.. were purely symbolic.

 If you ask me, the left have their heads in the sand, every bit as much as those who voted for Bush. They simply do not care about the suffering that is going on, they only care about achieving total power and control, and they must be stopped. I am campaigning now against Obama and every corrupt democrat in office.

She left this comment on her blog:

"They pay me to blog at blogher, but they don't pay me to read the comments thank goodness."  

Well, alrighty then.  I guess, I don't expect Michele Obama or Nancy Pfotenhauer to read comments, but it does seem a little impolite when a person who is primarily a blogger does not.

Anyway, I do have a choice of things to read, and no one is paying me to read her posts (thank goodness.)  ;)

Tacoma Mama ( http://www.tacomamama.com )

Kitchen Table Issues ( http://kitchentablemama.blogspot.com/ )

It is tough to keep up with comments as they come and even more difficult when dealing with a hurricane, no power and just trying to get your life back when it is all over.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

I do it all the time.  But I do come back and check comments and engage when I see them.  Well, I am glad she has her power back on now.  Maybe she'll stop by.

Tacoma Mama ( http://www.tacomamama.com )

Kitchen Table Issues ( http://kitchentablemama.blogspot.com/ )

I used to give my mom a hard time for voting libertarian, even though like you, her vote didn't really matter. I understand her reasoning a lot better now than I ever did.

Being not for Obama and living in Illinois has helped me see the light.

:-)

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

Many BlogHer Contributing Editors cross post their entries here and on their personal blogs. They own their work and are free to do so. The posts she writes here will not be cross posted at the Houston Chronicle.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

It thrills me to no end to know that my state will be blue as usual and I can spend my vote doing something that matters...voting Libertarian.

More funding, more visibility, more participation. The potential for real choices and not just the same old liberal and the same old democrat slinging the same tired old mud.

Someday people will realize the whole "throwing your vote away" fear has been put there by two parties that want to keep America in their pocket. Then we have a chance at real politics instead of this pretty show every four years.

Here's hoping!

jennydecki

Beyond Mom Blog ( http://beyondmom.com )

across several blogs, including her own blog, the Houston Chronicle and here.  Word for word.

Why not here?

Isn't that the point?

She's  been posting and commenting away at her own blog.

Tacoma Mama ( http://www.tacomamama.com )

Kitchen Table Issues ( http://kitchentablemama.blogspot.com/ )

It's been a few days since the last post in this thread, and the post's author hasn't been back to engage, so the discussion seems to have just petered out.

That said, there's nothing here in the way of factual content to back up the author's opinions.

National tracking polls are not useful for assessing the outcome of the election, since being elected is based on state-by-state outcomes for the electoral college.

But McCain has already lost the edge that he got as a result of his VP pick and convention. And Palin's favorable/unfavorable ratings have collapsed as well.

Whatever "swinging McCain's way" the author was referring to has gone dramatically in the other direction in a very short time.

Anybody who's interested in a rigorous analysis of polling data should really spend time at Nate Silver's outstanding site at http://www.fivethirtyeight.com

It seems the Obama campaign panicked after the post-Palin polls showed a shift to McCain and Obama started going negative.  One of my main reason for supporting Obama was his new politics and resistance to being negative like all the others.  I think the press can take care of McCain / Palin rhetoric and expose the false claims they are making - and that allows Obama to focus on looking Presidential, rising above partisanship and communicating an image of leadership and reconciliation that we need so much.  The polls took a temporary bounce from the Palin honeymoon period and will correct shortly and Obama needs to stay above the smears.  I reject the smears that Rush and Sean spew forth daily and hope we can stay away from that. 

I'm still confused here.  For the past week, the polls have been trending in Obama's direction--he's now ahead by at least 2 percent in most national polls--and Sarah Palin's popularity has been plummeting since her interview with Gibson--as friendly an interrogator as you can get outside the right-wing echo chamber--demonstrated that she has no grasp of issues that even a state executive--and party loyalist--should know backwards and forwards.  McCain's Herbert Hoover-like response to the stock market meltdown didn't help his cause.  Where are you getting your news? 

Oh, and you know who Herbert Hoover was, don't you?

I'm thrilled in the interest you've taken in BlogHer, Shelley. and you should feel free to email me any time with specific questions about the site. (denise@blogher.com)

Contributing editors are selected in a variety of ways and reasons. I've got a very long list of potential CEs to choose from but I'd be happy to add you to my potential wish list, Shelley.

As for how the site works. You can start by reading "Using this site" which is linked in the top horizontal navigation. In that post we've explained that CE posts appear on the landing pages of all of the topic pages and on the home page. Member and CE posts are visible by clicking the "all posts" link on the home page and on each topic page.

If you have any more questions, drop me an email or visit the Using this site ( http://www.blogher.com/forums/blogher-news-forums/... ) forum, I'd be happy to help clear any confusion.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

Some members of our community, CE and non-CE alike, struggle with formatting issues in comments and blog entries.

I know it can be difficult to read something with odd line breaks, (try subscribing to comments in your feedreader, that usually helps), but please be patient with those who struggle.

Thanks for your understanding.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

I feel compelled to give my thoughts on the Fiorina comment regarding fitness to run a company.

None of the candidates, VP or POTUS, need to be able to run a corporation.  The interests of the corporations as supported by their lobbyists, are very different than our interests as a nation.  I don't want a corporate guy or gal in office--I want someone who'll properly represent me, and the American People. 

My reaction to Fiorina's comment is that we're talking apples and oranges--and thusly, we get sidetracked by yet another tangential comment from a campaign operative.

That said, I still don't think Palin has what it takes to be a successful Veep, or POTUS.

~Margaret

Just Margaret
( http://maurhoffbarney.blogspot.com )

AND...Miteegirl is more than willing to talk on email...send her a line, Jane! Her reasons for relative anonymity are pretty sound!

I think accusing her of being an Obama staffer is a compliment actually...wish someone would say that about me! :)

Notions of Identity ( http://www.notionsofidentity.com )

I get those funky breaks in my posts too--and I'm not a cut and past kind of commenter...

~Margaret

Just Margaret ( http://maurhoffbarney.blogspot.com )

and see posts by everyone. Look below 'what's hot' and above the first post.  

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

/

llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

Perhaps she'll let us know.

Either way, I hope that clarified any confusion.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

In the "Um, what?" comment...which might explain her comment.

Not sure - sorry if wrong, just seemed that way. (It gets confusing sometimes when replies go a little farther down.) Laurie

...is our new CE blogging from the RIGHT.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

Ah.

So, it's not "Right-WINGSPARKLE."

It's "RIGHTWING Sparkle."

Thanks, Erin.

Oh good lord. This was nothing more than me being curious, wondering how one gets selected, why do some posts end up on the front page, as compared to those that don't, and it if it is only Blogger CE posts that end up on the front page. 

I'm just trying to figure out how this site works. 

However,  I've suddenly lost interest.

Oh, but just think of all of the money that the town's taxpayers saved by having women pay for their own rape kits.

The Evil Slut Clique
Evilslutopia ( http://evilslutopia.blogspot.com )

She later added that not only could Palin not run HP, but McCain, Obama, and Biden couldn't do it either.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2008/09/f... ( http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2008/09/f... )

The Evil Slut Clique
Evilslutopia ( http://evilslutopia.blogspot.com )

..though wouldn't that be terrific!?!  To be able to get paid to stand up for what I believe in?  That would rock.  Ah well.  Maybe someday I'll be lucky enough to work for Obama.

Other than the fact that I live in Chicago and the rest of the info in my Blogher profile, what would you like to know Jane?  

Other than your blogger name, I know nothing about you.  But, I'm willing to bet that you believe everything you write.

Perhaps you can extend the same benefit of the doubt to me?

I can vouch for Miteegirl. 

She's smart as hell, well researched, and a real live blogger (gasp) just like you and me. She has some excellent reasons for anonymity. Which in no way takes away from the strength of her arguments. 

I'd hope we can stick to debating ideas instead of launching character attacks on women in this community.

Mom-101 ( http://mom-101.blogspot.com )
( http://coolmompicks.com )

So I take that to mean she considers herself right wing. 

I don't really get your perspective either but that is a matter for another discussion, another day.  

Tacoma Mama ( http://www.tacomamama.com )

my 80 year old mom had been undecided. Most often she is a Democrat, but she sorta likes Palin, and hated the attacks upon her.

My mom informed me tonight she is voting for Obama.  

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

/

llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

Just because someone says something you don't agree with, you automatically assume they're a conservative?  Remember the old saying about assumptions.

For the record, I'm a Democrat who has worked on every presidential campaign--for the Democrats--since 1984.  That would be Mondale, Dukakis, Clinton, Gore and Kerry.  Plus, a number of state-wide campaigns.

I was just wondering the same thing about one of the conservative commenters on another thread (without any record of posts here) but thought that putting that into words might be a little bit libelous, (because I don't and can't know that) and completely besides the point of the actual argument.

For example, in this thread I saw miteegirl cite a couple of polls, not "only those publications that back up the point [she] want[ed] to make" but the same polls pretty much everyone cites.  So maybe you can give us some specific examples or maybe you have something to say about the polls?  Your comment is entitled "polls." 

Tacoma Mama ( http://www.tacomamama.com )

Welcome to BlogHer as another voice for the right...but um, most polls indicate momentum has once again shifted. I expect it will do this a few more times...that's just how it goes.

I surely hope the GOP continues it's current ... campaign of...shall we call it..um...less than truth-y-ness?? The general public seems to be getting more and more turned off by the second. You can see what I mean in my last post.

And Nelle- here's Joe making some noise. FROM MY HOMETOWN HIGH SCHOOL! W00T!

I would invite everyone to watch, especially our GOP CE's And maybe then we can discuss some differences in the issues?

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

Having read a number of your posts Miteegirl, where you refuse to ID yourself, refute logic, hide your ID and paraphrase only those publications that back up the point you want to make, I have to wonder: are you one of the paid members of the Obama campaign who lurk on sites to do nothing but refute arguments against him?

Back to your original point: this has been the perfect storm.  The Democratic party --- really, the Obama campaign--- indulged in a severe case of hubris and East Coast-itis.  They ignored the storm signals and were caught unprepared.  Polls clearly reflect that.

As James Carville said, Democrats sure know how to lose an election.

Jane Becker

Gah, can't type. Should be "political CE"

Is this you talking, or are you copying and pasting from some publication? If you're copying and pasting, you should credit. If this is you, I'm not sure why but you're getting line breaks that make it difficult to read what you're saying.

to answer for Denise, she can deal with answering... Instead I just wish to give my take on such a question - since this be a place for opinion and disagreement.

I've been around BlogHer for over 2.5 years, and have found the product put forth by those in its employ to be first rate, even if I do not agree with what is written in many instances.  

Hopefully we are not going to start questioning the qualifications of those who hold such positions. 

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

/

llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

"I would just add, for example, Gov. Sarah Palin clearly understands the energy markets and the effect of high gas prices on the economy, as she has rebated gas taxes back to her citizens."

Actually that's not entirely accurate. Windfall tax on oil profits is built into Alaskan law.  She worked with Democratic state legislators, and some Republicans, to increase the amount returned to the Alaska citizens, but she didn't do it all by herself.

There's a downside to this Alaskan give away. The oil companies deduct the amount they pay Alaska from what they pay in federal taxes. So the Alaska citizens benefit, while the rest of us pick up the tab.

As for understanding the energy market, Alaska does not provide 20% of the nation's energy, per McCain/Palin claim. The state supplies 14% of the oil. In total energy, Alaska supplies 2.4% of the energy consumed in the US. 

Curious. What is your process for picking a "policial CE"?

+1

I could swear this is a repeat of what we've heard before. Can we not focus on issues? This election is not about personalities, but all we hear about Palin is Palin the personality, not Palin the potential VP. 

Issues. Issues.

and as one who has been taking some heat for saying so, but yes... we did blow it in how we reacted.

Couple that with the blown vp selection, and... it was indeed a perfect storm. A few weeks ago one of my posts here ended with mentioning how we tend to shoot ourselves in the foot. Damn, that hurts! (as I hop around the room)

It is also overwith, the damage done. We are once again a slight underdog. And so...

whatarewegonnadoaboutit?

Biden's the veep choice, so dammit Joe, go make some noise. Good noise, not foot in mouth noise.

I just read a Times (London) story where an investment banker stated earlier today "there is no more capital left in the world.'

I'm rather nervous about this, and the economy is where the left can make legitimate claims of being the better choice. Anyone in the moment care to argue one mantra of the right - regulation and big government are bad things?

I'd argue without the government, our unemployment rate would be skyrocketing. Which means we get *really* busy and I'd probably be pulled from the project I'm assigned to.

The right cut out some of the oversight. The left has fixed such messes before. 

nelle ( http://refractivethoughts.org/ )

/

llhaesa ( http://llhaesa.org/ )

I don't even care all that much about McCain, at this point (though his stance on the economy and gay marriage is more than enough for me not to want him in office).  The fact that he selected Palin after just a couple of very brief meetings lets me know that he's not unduly concerned about selecting someone as his second who even knows what the hell they're doing.

As far as Palin herself - just the fact that she is vehemently anti-abortion (even in cases of rape and incest!) and is part of a freakish fundie church are more than enough reason for me to vote for Barack Obama instead.  I got a peek at an article that quoted some of her hacked emails and I've never seen 'God' and 'prayer' mentioned more in three or four freaking sentences in all my life.  That, by itself, is frightening enough to me not to want her anywhere near my White House.

The last thing we need, considering the state we're in, is more of the same crap.  If we get McCain and Palin in office, we might as well just kiss the US goodbye.

People blog under a pseudonym for many reasons, and questioning someone's identity, for any reason muddies the discussion and the community interaction.

If you (or anyone else) has concerns about a member of the community, I'd encourage you to email me (denise@blogher.com) to express those.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

The citizens voted to take out a construction bond that would be paid
off with increased sales taxes. So yes she left a bond debt approved by
the citizens. It was not an operating debt.

Most capital projects in businesses or cities of all sizes are paid this way.

It's a fast-growing suburb ( http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j94Mh6T_0iAWkrt... ) of Anchorage, she and the council built infrastructure, including new sewer, water, roads and schools. And she marketed the town to retailers who established new stores which shored up the town's sales tax revenues to pay for the bond issue.