“Calling in generals and admirals to discuss troop strength is like me taking my youngest to McDonald’s to ask if he likes french fries,” Conyers said.

Really? This man has been alive for 80 years. In those 80 years he’s learned nothing about the men and women that serve this great nation? If I’ve spoken to one, I’ve spoke to twenty, men and women responsible for sending troops in harms way, and to a person not one has ever cherished, delighted or relished the thought of sending more troops anywhere, to possibly be killed. That he would slander these brave men and women in such a haphazard manner is ignorant at best.

His response is one of such callousness it’s unthinkable. Talk to a veteran of any war, Senator McCain is a great example. The last thing they want to do is send troops into battle, understanding the massive sacrifice that is asking. The Generals running this nations armed forces want to win the conflicts the politicians cannot resolve through diplomatic means, the conflicts that politicians start up, that’s what you’re supposed to do right?

Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernize Heaven and Hell – or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilization. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.

I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.

It already has all the signs of such a thing. The newspapers which recorded Obama’s victory have become valuable relics. You may buy Obama picture books and Obama calendars and if there isn’t yet a children’s picture version of his story, there soon will be.

Proper books, recording his sordid associates, his cowardly voting record, his astonishingly militant commitment to unrestricted abortion and his blundering trip to Africa, are little-read and hard to find.

If you can believe that this undistinguished and conventionally Left-wing machine politician is a sort of secular saviour, then you can believe anything. He plainly doesn’t believe it himself. His cliche-stuffed, PC clunker of an acceptance speech suffered badly from nerves. It was what you would expect from someone who knew he’d promised too much and that from now on the easy bit was over.

He needn’t worry too much. From now on, the rough boys and girls of America’s Democratic Party apparatus, many recycled from Bill Clinton’s stained and crumpled entourage, will crowd round him, to collect the rich spoils of his victory and also tell him what to do, which is what he is used to.

Just look at his sermon by the shores of Lake Michigan. He really did talk about a ‘new dawn’, and a ‘timeless creed’ (which was ‘yes, we can’). He proclaimed that ‘change has come’. He revealed that, despite having edited the Harvard Law Review, he doesn’t know what ‘enormity’ means. He reached depths of oratorical drivel never even plumbed by our own Mr Blair, burbling about putting our hands on the arc of history (or was it the ark of history?) and bending it once more toward the hope of a better day (Don’t try this at home).

I am not making this up. No wonder that awful old hack Jesse Jackson sobbed as he watched. How he must wish he, too, could get away with this sort of stuff.

And it was interesting how the President-elect failed to lift his admiring audience by repeated – but rather hesitant – invocations of the brainless slogan he was forced by his minders to adopt against his will – ‘Yes, we can’. They were supposed to thunder ‘Yes, we can!’ back at him, but they just wouldn’t join in. No wonder. Yes we can what exactly? Go home and keep a close eye on the tax rate, is my advice. He’d have been better off bursting into ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony’ which contains roughly the same message and might have attracted some valuable commercial sponsorship.

Perhaps, being a Chicago crowd, they knew some of the things that 52.5 per cent of America prefers not to know. They know Obama is the obedient servant of one of the most squalid and unshakeable political machines in America. They know that one of his alarmingly close associates, a state-subsidised slum landlord called Tony Rezko, has been convicted on fraud and corruption charges.

They also know the US is just as segregated as it was before Martin Luther King – in schools, streets, neighbourhoods, holidays, even in its TV-watching habits and its choice of fast-food joint. The difference is that it is now done by unspoken agreement rather than by law.

If Mr Obama’s election had threatened any of that, his feel-good white supporters would have scuttled off and voted for John McCain, or practically anyone. But it doesn’t. Mr Obama, thanks mainly to the now-departed grandmother he alternately praised as a saint and denounced as a racial bigot, has the huge advantages of an expensive private education. He did not have to grow up in the badlands of useless schools, shattered families and gangs which are the lot of so many young black men of his generation.

If the nonsensical claims made for this election were true, then every positive discrimination programme aimed at helping black people into jobs they otherwise wouldn’t get should be abandoned forthwith. Nothing of the kind will happen. On the contrary, there will probably be more of them.

And if those who voted for Obama were all proving their anti-racist nobility, that presumably means that those many millions who didn’t vote for him were proving themselves to be hopeless bigots. This is obviously untrue.
barack obama

Yes we can what?: Barack Obama ran on the ticket of change

I was in Washington DC the night of the election. America’s beautiful capital has a sad secret. It is perhaps the most racially divided city in the world, with 15th Street – which runs due north from the White House – the unofficial frontier between black and white. But, like so much of America, it also now has a new division, and one which is in many ways much more important. I had attended an election-night party in a smart and liberal white area, but was staying the night less than a mile away on the edge of a suburb where Spanish is spoken as much as English, plus a smattering of tongues from such places as Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan.

As I walked, I crossed another of Washington’s secret frontiers. There had been a few white people blowing car horns and shouting, as the result became clear. But among the Mexicans, Salvadorans and the other Third World nationalities, there was something like ecstasy.

They grasped the real significance of this moment. They knew it meant that America had finally switched sides in a global cultural war. Forget the Cold War, or even the Iraq War. The United States, having for the most part a deeply conservative people, had until now just about stood out against many of the mistakes which have ruined so much of the rest of the world.

Suspicious of welfare addiction, feeble justice and high taxes, totally committed to preserving its own national sovereignty, unabashedly Christian in a world part secular and part Muslim, suspicious of the Great Global Warming panic, it was unique.

These strengths had been fading for some time, mainly due to poorly controlled mass immigration and to the march of political correctness. They had also been weakened by the failure of America’s conservative party – the Republicans – to fight on the cultural and moral fronts.

They preferred to posture on the world stage. Scared of confronting Left-wing teachers and sexual revolutionaries at home, they could order soldiers to be brave on their behalf in far-off deserts. And now the US, like Britain before it, has begun the long slow descent into the Third World. How sad. Where now is our last best hope on Earth?

I was also forwarded a quote I found a bit more than disturbing.

“Owners of capital will stimulate working class to buy more and more of expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits, until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized, and State will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism”
Karl Marx from “Das Kapital”
1867

Now that doesn’t mean anything other than this is a blog where I post my opinions and thoughts. Don’t take this personally but there is literally nothing in the history of my blog I have ever posted to please you, or meet your expectations. If something I say, or an opinion of mine is something you agree with, cool. If not, that’s fine too.

I don’t, and never will, post for either of those reasons. I post what I think, I post what I believe. Neither of those makes me right or just, they make me, me.

If you don’t like me, or you disagree with me, or you are so bent on the fact that I voted for John McCain you can’t sleep, don’t come here. Why on earth would you?

I am 100% positive I’ve made more than 1 mistake on this blog in the past. I am more than 100% positive I’ve said something that offended someone and I had no intention of offending when I said it.

Case in point. Ya it might be trivial to some, but my epileptic frog jog apparently offended some readers who suffer from epilepsy. That or someone who doesn’t like me posted as such to make the comments. Either way this is not a forum for that and if anyone was offended I apologize, that was obviously not my intent.

Many of you have commented “Stay above the fray”, “Don’t sink to his level” and more, and you’re pretty much spot on. However that’s not what I chose to do. I am flawed, just like every single one of you and speaking my mind and talking ‘off the cuff’ are somehow deemed great qualities and nasty traits at the same time by different people.

I can’t stand someone who makes a big deal about ‘telling it like it is’ or ‘saying what’s on their mind’ to emphasize their assertiveness or toughness. Neither of those is a ‘tough’ quality to me.

I do say what I think, I do tell it like I think it is. Neither of those makes me right, they make me, me.

It’s not that hard and sure as hell shouldn’t be that disturbing to people. Not to mention be that big of a deal.

If you don’t want to hear me, can’t stand my opinion, why the hell are you clicking on this link? Better yet, not only are you clicking on the link, you’re signing up for a WordPress account to leave a comment on a persons blog you can’t stand?? Who does that speak more about?

I don’t care if my opinions popular or unpopular, it’s mine. I do enjoy the back and forth here especially when someone calls me out and I learn something I didn’t know or my opinion changes upon further research, that’s cool.

CHB doesn’t permeate my thoughts or bother me. I get annoyed from time to time and to be honest I laugh like hell at you people talking about “Let him be” and “Why do you care?” when you cannot imagine what it’s like to have someone you have no respect for write demeaning and false things about you or your teammates publicly, most especially when you know them to be untrue.

You learn to deal with it, but there are times when you don’t feel like just ‘dealing with it’ and that’s the times when I say something. That’s certainly not been the best course of action over time for me and I’ve learned a little in the past 23 years.

The thing is, we don’t know each other. Short of meeting me in person, shaking my hand and talking, we never will. What you know about me, my thoughts, my family, my faith in the Lord, my love of the game, all of that, you know because people I don’t know told you.

This blog was a way for me to change that, and I like that. I can write what I want, when I want. Under the blog banner what I write is what I want and how I want. I don’t ‘work in the media’ as a few would like to think. The stuff I do for the column is writing on topics Rob and I think are relevant to sports but I’ve been given complete freedom to write whatever I choose to.

That’s what’s going to make EEI and this site so unique as the writers get more into the flow and the content gets fresher.

So in short, if you are interested in something I say, cool, if not, fine, go to someone’s blog you do like, or better yet start your own. I have no problems with people liking or disliking me, being human I’d prefer people didn’t dislike me but hey, that’s life.

38 Pitches will be blog posts of my thoughts, my opinions, my family and my career. If none of those are of interest to you then by all means please delete that bookmark.

Proud to know more Americans voted yesterday than at any time in this countries history. Congratulations to everyone that made their voice heard yesterday.

Senator McCain; damn what a speech. Clearly continuing his life long display of class, dignity, honor and integrity I only wish more people knew the man as well as I do. He exudes those same traits regardless of the audience or venue. I am proud as hell to call he and his family friends. Not many countries are capable of creating men like him and I am proud we are one of them. To John and Cindy and the rest of the McCain family, thank you.

Senator Obama; damn what a campaign. Expert after expert talked about the nearly flawless political campaign he ran, and the voters in this country backed those opinions up, lock stock and barrel. Congratulations Mr. President Elect, I pray to God that starting tomorrow every decision you make, every piece of advice you receive, every minute of counsel given to you, all of those things lead you to make every day from tomorrow on a better one for the people of the greatest nation on earth. I know the move doesn’t become official until January 20th, but we all know better, change begins tomorrow.

Am I disappointed? Sure, the man I know and the man I believed to be the right choice didn’t win. It stops there though. Because tomorrow the sun is going to come up in this country and less than 40 years after an African American was not allowed to use the same bathroom as a white person, sleep in the same hotel, ride on the same bus, go to the same school, less than 40 years later our nation showed the entire world why it is the greatest nation on earth and selected an African American as it’s 44th President.

Do I agree with him? Not a lot. Was he my choice? Nope. But we end that ‘stuff’ now right? Tomorrow we all wake up Americans. Tomorrow the world once again looks at us in complete awe. Never has a country on this planet selected what was once a ‘minority’ to it’s highest political position. No free nation has ever done what we just did, again. So while I made no bones about my choice, I do believe in Senator McCain, and I do believe him to be right when he says now is the time to put aside political differences, personal agendas and partisan politics and wish God Speed to President Elect Barack Obama in leading the greatest nation on earth over the next four years. It’s going to take effort and commitment like we’ve never seen.

God Bless every one of you who didn’t forsake the right afforded us today and voted. The votes have been counted and we’ve set our course, time for us to let a new captain take the wheel and steer us into uncharted territory.

95% of Politicians lives are spent ‘behind closed doors’. We can’t see or hear the things they do and say. We rely on these men and woman to make the right decisions, we rely on them to serve in our best interests at home and abroad.

What do I know about Barack Obama?

Listen I don’t for a second think the links to Bill Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and known domestic terrorist, who bombed among other things a police station, the Pentagon and other buildings, I don’t think that makes Barack Obama a terrorist, contrary to what some might have you believe.

I don’t think that the links to Rashid Khalidi make him a supporter of the PLO.

I don’t think that his associations and work with ACORN means he was out soliciting and registering ‘fake’ voters.

I don’t think that his associations and ‘spiritual counseling’ from Jeremiah Wright means he hates our country or wishes the country ill will.

Maybe he does, I don’t know, but I don’t believe he does.

I am very concerned about the fact that in the past 7 days the ‘floor’ of his tax plan on Americans has been given as 4 very distinctly different numbers that, depending on which one we are to believe, would affect a much larger % of Americans than we’ve been led to believe.

What I do know about Senator Obama is, I don’t really know what he is going to do other than raise taxes and put in mechanisms to parcel out that money under a ‘plan’, supposedly, we know nothing about.

But none of the points above make me think he’s a ‘bad guy’ or ‘mean person’, however they give me absolute right and I think it would be borderline negligent to NOT question his judgment in a very serious way. And isn’t that important of a President? Aren’t we supposed to vote for someone who, even if they don’t have every single interest of ours as their priority, we trust to have good judgment? Do any of those examples make me think that is the case?

(Anyone wishing to use this as a reason for me to vote against him can zip it, I don’t have a job, I am likely retired, and the tax threshold means squat to me. I am now a small business owner in a start up and there is nothing he’s proposed that is going to help me hire new employees or maintain the best health care coverage in the industry my company is in. I’m going to have to do that despite him if he’s elected)

I am not voting for John McCain for any of the reasons above in and of itself. In fact pretty much every reason I can think of to vote for Senator McCain has to do with the man himself.

I am put off by the fact that Senator Obama has made this campaign about him, and his desire to be the President of the United States, while Senator McCain has made it clear that serving as President would be an honor and privilege following a life spent doing that very thing.

But this is the reason it has all become easier for me. Neither of these men stand on platforms I am in complete agreement with. If you say otherwise, you’re lying. For one reason we don’t know what their platforms are in total, but we have an idea. Obviously my beliefs are more in line with Senator McCain but it’s not some landslide thing where I can say “Wow! That’s stupid! No way I’d vote for that guy”. No. So if I don’t agree with both of them in total, I need to go to the next check mark. Which of these men can I trust to do the “Right Thing” (Sorry Spike!).

In a scenario far beyond anything anyone reading this can imagine, on the most important day of his life, in the most life threatening peril any of us could think to imagine, no cameras, no votes to win, no political favors to gain, this man, John McCain made a decision I don’t think many of us could, or would have made.

Faced with likely death if he stayed, versus living and being nursed back to health AT HOME, IN THE U.S., John McCain stood by the code of Honor, Ethics, Morals, and Integrity we only WISH men running this country had. Broken arms, leg, shoulder, ribs, dysentery like you can’t imagine, after years of torture and beatings, solitary confinement, all of that, he choose to stay in prison, with his brothers in arms, rather than being set free because he was the son of one of the most powerful and influential men in the United States Armed Forces.

He was willing to give his life for something he believed in. Something that to many was nothing more than words on paper, but to men like Senator McCain and all those serving with him, beside him, these were much more, they were something you built a nation out of. A nation of great human beings. He did this for that reason, and that reason alone.

Having every reason in the world to go home to his wife and young child, and health, he didn’t! Why? Please answer that question in your own mind. Answer that and then tell me with a straight face this man is someone you don’t trust with our best interest? Really?

The other big piece to this is that if you have heard him he’s as honest as the day is long. For better or worse this man will be the first to admit he’s made mistakes, he’s screwed up. Show me any other person on the ticket that has been so ‘real’, his warts are out there for all to see and he makes NO EXCUSES, NONE, for his short comings. I can live with someone that’s made mistakes as long as I know those mistakes were made in our best interests, made with the notion of serving the greater good. I worry more about people failing to recognize or admit or own up to screwing up.

The one prime example of this, and you only need to pick up the paper to see it, is the war in the Middle East. 1 year ago it was front page news, every single day. Why not now? Well in addition to the Global Economy being in the tank, the bigger reason is because the ‘Surge’ that was thought to be “Political Suicide” for any politician endorsing it, is working. No one needs to be reminded who voted on which side back then, but it’s horribly convenient that it’s dismissed off hand today. Once again, with everything to lose, Senator McCain said “I’d rather lose this election than lose this war” . Against literally all odds and I would guess advice, he did what he knew to be the right thing FOR THE COUNTRY.

Senator Biden? Where was he? He’s the foreign Policy Expert guy right? The guy with a lifetime of experience and know how? Well he was here and he was wrong. Wrong then, wrong now.

Senator Obama? He was here stating emphatically
“nobody wants to get U.S. troops out of Iraq more than he does, but doing so will require voters to pressure Senate Republicans, including New Hampshire Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu, to break with President Bush”. That was 16 months ago!!. In the past 16 months can ANYONE on the planet not admit the tide has turned, things have changed on an epic scale? Senator Obama still holds to the line saying “It has not worked”.

Can anyone fathom what would have happened if we’d actually followed that course of action? Can you honestly say if he’d has his way, and we’d pulled out, things would be better in this world? How can you? He was wrong, all of them were.

That’s not to say it’s over, it’s not and won’t be in the near future, any rational person knows that and should expect it to be more time and effort and unfortunately lives and least of all money, to get what needs to be done, done. Don’t we owe it to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, NATO forces of the coalition and the men, women and children of Iraq to see it through? That’s not to say it’s been easy or in any way diminish the staggering cost in lives, those things in and of themselves are horrible. But we have a country of men and women willing and able to take on that responsibility and that is a source of pride we should all take comfort in. Stop with the why’s and how’s of it all beginning. None of us can or will deny we were not given the right or proper information at the outset and I won’t disagree for a second that the people responsible will have to bear witness to their involvement and accountability. But memory is a funny thing, because I have trouble finding anyone that was out in the street screaming and hollering at President Bush in the months following 9/11. We were proud as hell to be acting how we acted, and doing what we were doing. The minute the ‘cost’ came into view people started scrambling for life boats and politicians all over this country showed you what they truly believed about us, and their agendas, in the months and years that have followed.

In the last debate Senator McCain emphatically asked us only ONE THING, one, ‘Check the record’ on both he and Senator Obama. In the white noise that has become this political campaign lots of people, me included at times, have lost focus on the people, the men, the women, and who and what they are. Isn’t that what matters?

I am voting for Senator McCain because when the lights are off, and no ones watching, I know for a fact this man is going to ALWAYS vote for and push for and make happen, the thing that is in our best interest; and by “our” I don’t mean my taxes, your salary, his 401K, her Medical, I mean he’ll always take the route that is best for US, as a whole, the country, and that’s what we need in my opinion. We must have someone who understands this job is bigger than he is. Than any one or two people are, and that this job unlike any time in our life, is going to command someone with the life long experience of instituting change, redirecting failed efforts, fighting the establishment and having to ‘go against the grain’ but most of all someone who knows and understands service to country is the most important responsibility we have. Someone who’s done it, someone who’s passed tests few have ever been asked to take, and far fewer could ever pass.

John McCain has spent his life passing tests in service of our country and at no time in my life, or my children, is this country more in need of someone new to take charge and change the very fabric of who we are, and what we are doing.

I’m curious to see the reaction to this article and the implications that are clear both party wise, and more specifically candidate wise.

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) — The financial crisis of the past year has provided a number of surprising twists and turns, and from Bear Stearns Cos. to American International Group Inc., ambiguity has been a big part of the story.

Why did Bear Stearns fail, and how does that relate to AIG? It all seems so complex.

But really, it isn’t. Enough cards on this table have been turned over that the story is now clear. The economic history books will describe this episode in simple and understandable terms: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exploded, and many bystanders were injured in the blast, some fatally.

Fannie and Freddie did this by becoming a key enabler of the mortgage crisis. They fueled Wall Street’s efforts to securitize subprime loans by becoming the primary customer of all AAA-rated subprime-mortgage pools. In addition, they held an enormous portfolio of mortgages themselves.

In the times that Fannie and Freddie couldn’t make the market, they became the market. Over the years, it added up to an enormous obligation. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more than $388 billion in high-risk mortgage investments. Their large presence created an environment within which even mortgage-backed securities assembled by others could find a ready home.

The problem was that the trillions of dollars in play were only low-risk investments if real estate prices continued to rise. Once they began to fall, the entire house of cards came down with them.

Turning Point

Take away Fannie and Freddie, or regulate them more wisely, and it’s hard to imagine how these highly liquid markets would ever have emerged. This whole mess would never have happened.

It is easy to identify the historical turning point that marked the beginning of the end.

Back in 2005, Fannie and Freddie were, after years of dominating Washington, on the ropes. They were enmeshed in accounting scandals that led to turnover at the top. At one telling moment in late 2004, captured in an article by my American Enterprise Institute colleague Peter Wallison, the Securities and Exchange Comiission’s chief accountant told disgraced Fannie Mae chief Franklin Raines that Fannie’s position on the relevant accounting issue was not even “on the page” of allowable interpretations.

Then legislative momentum emerged for an attempt to create a “world-class regulator” that would oversee the pair more like banks, imposing strict requirements on their ability to take excessive risks. Politicians who previously had associated themselves proudly with the two accounting miscreants were less eager to be associated with them. The time was ripe.

Greenspan’s Warning

The clear gravity of the situation pushed the legislation forward. Some might say the current mess couldn’t be foreseen, yet in 2005 Alan Greenspan told Congress how urgent it was for it to act in the clearest possible terms: If Fannie and Freddie “continue to grow, continue to have the low capital that they have, continue to engage in the dynamic hedging of their portfolios, which they need to do for interest rate risk aversion, they potentially create ever-growing potential systemic risk down the road,” he said. “We are placing the total financial system of the future at a substantial risk.”

What happened next was extraordinary. For the first time in history, a serious Fannie and Freddie reform bill was passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill gave a regulator power to crack down, and would have required the companies to eliminate their investments in risky assets.

Different World

If that bill had become law, then the world today would be different. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a blizzard of terrible mortgage paper fluttered out of the Fannie and Freddie clouds, burying many of our oldest and most venerable institutions. Without their checkbooks keeping the market liquid and buying up excess supply, the market would likely have not existed.

But the bill didn’t become law, for a simple reason: Democrats opposed it on a party-line vote in the committee, signaling that this would be a partisan issue. Republicans, tied in knots by the tight Democratic opposition, couldn’t even get the Senate to vote on the matter.

That such a reckless political stand could have been taken by the Democrats was obscene even then. Wallison wrote at the time: “It is a classic case of socializing the risk while privatizing the profit. The Democrats and the few Republicans who oppose portfolio limitations could not possibly do so if their constituents understood what they were doing.”

Mounds of Materials

Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing.

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.

Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.

Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.

There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.

Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that’s worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess.

The blog post:

Hey Curt,

Save the republican agenda speak for your millionaire cronies you associate with. Most of us are in an economic crisis. Inflation and tight budgets are things that dont affect you but do the rest of us. I am a union member with paid healthcare but still struggling to support my wife and two kids and plan for my retirement. John McCain wants to tax me for the health benefits I receive and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans at the same time. He spits in the face of the working middle class worker. And the thought of his running mate becoming president is frightening. Lets see if the bozos who put Bush in twice are actually dumb enough to vote for 4 more years of his policies. Republicans are sending this country to hell in a handbasket. Im not saying Obama is a flawless candidate by any means, but the thought of an out of touch OLD man who wants war scares me even more

And the response I got back….

Here are the answers:

1. McCain does not want to raise taxes on anyone. He thinks the Obama plan to raise capital gains taxes or any other while we are in a recession is a “dumb idea”. Direct quote. Last week after criticizing McCain for months for wanting to keep the Bush tax cuts in place, Obama reversed himself and said he would leave them in place if the country was in a recession. Apparently Obama doesn’t understand we are in one.

Senator Obama has voted to raise taxes 94 times in his short time in the
Senate.

Last week Obama said he wouldn’t raise taxes for anyone making less than 250k- who believes him? Why should we tax the small businesses and people who create jobs more than we tax this fellow?

On health care, only lucky guys like the writer get those great plans. The rest of America struggles. The McCain plan would end this unfairness and instead give every family a 5000 dollar tax Credit- cash in their pocket to buy a plan. This will make every consumer a price conscious shopper- if we don’t do that the price of health care will just continue to skyrocket. Inflation is at 2%- in healthcare it hasn’t been less than 8% per year for the past 5 years. It is not
sustainable.

Out of touch?
How about Obama saying the surge didn’t work and wouldn’t work?

How about Obama saying we should negotiate with our enemies directly?

Obama has never sponsored or passed one significant bipartisan piece of
legislation.

Not once has he stood up to his own party. Not once.

Mccain has on many occasions- campaign finance, immigration, corruption- boeing
scandal, earmarks, etc.

He won’t pander and you probably won’t agree with everything he says, but I think he’s a man that can be trusted to get this country back on it’s feet domestically, and abroad. I am proud to call him a friend.

I’d also argue, after hearing a politician comment last night that ‘his 5 years in captivity have no bearing on his ability to be president”, that it’s the exact opposite. The resiliency, determination and complete lack of selfishness in enduring that horrible experience are the exact type of things I need to know the person running this country possesses.

Anyway, congratulations Senator.

The Sox plod along in camp, and things look great. Starting at the top of our rotation Josh is poised to be even better this year. He busted his ass this winter and looks outstanding. Jon Lester looks fantastic as well and I expect he’ll have a good spring going forward. Tek, well he looks like Tek, stronger than everyone else and totally regimented in preparing for the season. Jacoby looks bigger and stronger, Youk looks great.

Had a chance to see Bartolo throw again today and I was blown away. He looks incredible. Throwing the snot out of the ball and very free and easy. Could be a huge steal, not sure how other teams passed on him. He looked awesome the 10 minutes I watched him throw.

Manny looks incredible. He is always in great shape but he looks leaner and stronger this year. The folks at API are incredible people and always on the cutting edge. Papi looks like he’s moving a hundred times better than at any point last season. Manny Delcarmen looks fantastic too, and I think he’s past worrying about losing velocity because he lost so much weight. Balls coming out of his hand nicely.

Congratulations to Tito on his extension. Can’t be happier for anyone after seeing all he’s been through since 1997. Inside the game I know he’s incredibly well respected and I hope that starts to carry over.

I’m plugging along. My days run from about 6am to 9am and I am generally finished before the guys take the field in the morning. Looking forward to playing catch at some point in the next month or so to figure out where I am and what is happening.

38 Studios is coming along. We recently announced our 1st tech deal when we licensed BigWorld as our back end technology (also like to ad that we just did the press release on our second tech solution, the licensing of the Unreal 3 Engine today! Big news!) The team did an incredible job over the past year in evaluating every bit of technology out there.

We’ve progressed into another stage of development but I think the lengthy period of time we spent in the concept phase will pay off in huge way down the road. The millions of dollars that can be saved with proper preparation was evident very early on. This past year has allowed Brett, Jon and some of the leadership team a real good opportunity to create a very different culture within this company that will be one of our hallmarks going forward. It was a fantastic year. Can’t wait to see what the next 12 months provide.

FYI I cast my vote for one John McCain at 7am this morning and was happy to see quite a few people at the polls.

For anyone that just is not sure who to vote for, I urge you to get a chance in the coming months to at least hear Senator McCain speak. If you cannot back him after hearing him speak that’s cool, but I’d ask to at least give him that much.

Anyone that can rile up members of both parties in some ways tells me that’s a good thing. While he’s considered a Republican in many cases, he’s not a dyed in the wool politician, which I love.

Mistakes? Yep. Missteps? Yep. Passion? Check. Common Sense? Check. Integrity? Double check. Ability to cross party lines to get things done? I believe he’s the ONLY one in this election capable of doing that and beyond all things that’s what I want from our next President. Someone with the ability to get things done regardless of personal agenda or party affiliation.

If you are a McCain supporter check out this piece, if you are undecided check it out as well

I had the honor of participating in a Town Hall with Senator McCain last night in Nashua, N.H.

He started the night by saying something that resonated with me. This town hall event, this forum, was Democracy at it’s most basic level. The ability for citizens of this country to question their candidates on issues that matter to them, and get responses, it doesn’t get any better than that.

I got to kick the evening off by introducing this man and talking a bit about why I was there. I had to laugh at the thought that his staff might not have realized the nightmare potential of me standing in front of American citizens with no script. The cool part is that this was easy. When you believe in someone, or something, so much, talking about your passion and respect for them is simple.

We are coming upon an election that I believe is absolutely essential to the future of this country. The American people have made it very clear how unhappy they are with where we are as a nation today. The approval ratings for our government are horribly low. We need someone who feels the way we all do about big government.

The true beauty of Senator McCain, in my opinion, lies in his accountability. Many questions were asked of him last night that elicited an initial answer of “I’m sorry I’m not going to be able to tell you what you want to hear, but the solution to that problem is more complex than a yes/no vote on a single piece of legislation.”

He doesn’t pander to the voters, he makes you understand, if you listen to him, that his goal is the rebuilding and restoration of national pride in the greatest country on earth.

The focus of this election, or at least the primary focus outside of any domestic issues, is the war in the Middle East. It will be, and should be, an incredibly hot topic with extreme amounts of passion for both sides.

My problem is in the people, politicians and media alike who make the ignorant comment “John McCain is war monger” “John McCain is for the war” and other idiotic comments like that. I would promise you this. Ask any human being who’s ever served in an active theater of war, whether they are for or against it. Anyone of sane mind will be the latter. No one that’s ever seen the horrible events that take place during a military conflict could ever in their right mind ‘be for war’.

John McCain is as against war as anyone that walks the earth. But you’re lying to yourself if you think that being ‘against the war’ makes someone more or less suited to be our next President. Simply being against the war is NOT going to solve the problem. It’s not going to end the war. We are all against the war, no one wants it.

We have to accept the fact that if we elect someone who PROMISES us to begin troop pull outs the minute they are elected, we are casting a vote to lose the war and dishonor the men and women that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. I want us out of the middle east now, today, immediately. But I also realize that if we do pull out before allowing the Iraqi people to solidify a system of self government that allows their people to live and breathe as free human beings with every right you and I have; if we pull out before the Iraqi people have been able to learn and train a security force devoid of corruption and focused on the safety of it’s citizens, we’ve failed, we’ve lost. Not only that but do you honestly believe we won’t find ourselves amidst another 9/11 event and then back in the middle east in force sometime in the near future?

There is absolutely no simple answer here. I don’t have it, nor do you. But for me the answer lies in the person we elect as our next president. My vote is going to a man that bravely served this nation and extolled virtues and character throughout his lifetime that make me believe in him, and his ideals.

Senator McCain is the first person in the room to tell you we’ve made mistakes, we’ve screwed up epically on many occasions. He’ll also tell you that pulling out now would erase any and everything good that’s been done since the war began.

This is not Vietnam. The citizens of Iraq WANT to be free and they’ve shown that they’ll turn out at polls to elect a government to make that happen, anyone with both eyes open can see that on a daily basis through the news being reported by unbiased and untainted media outlets.

I guess what I am saying, or asking, is that if you are undecided about who to cast your vote for, don’t vote for someone a celebrity tells you to vote for, that’s lame, lazy and disrespectful of the rights you’ve been given. Take the time to listen and see these people. I don’t doubt for a second that if you listen to these men and women, if you hear what they are saying, if you look at what kind of people they are, I don’t think you can come to any other conclusion than John McCain is far and away the best human being alive to be the next President of the United States of America. He’s the person to rebuild this country, reform this Government into one that serves the people. I think people are tired of feeling like they work for the governement or that their voice doesn’t matter, isn’t it the other way around? Isn’t it supposed to be?

If you don’t believe that, cool, cast your vote for whomever you choose to, but at the end of the day please make sure to cast your vote.

McCain/Huckaby in ’08?