Where was this Joe Biden before

Have you ever experienced synergy with a co-worker? The person who clicks with your working style, thinks in synch and both of you do better work than you could as individuals?I’ve seen Joe Biden run for president twice and I’ve never seen him deliver an inspired, crowd-stomping speech like this before.I’d always assumed he was [...]

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e/

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Steinem: Sarah Palin Shares Nothing But A
Chromosome With Hillary

LA Times:Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/09/06/steinem-sarah-palin-shares-nothing-but-a
-chromosome-with-hillary/

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McCain's son was on audit committy of latest
failed bank

So the Keating Five is now the McCain Two? Is it safe to call John McCain's son Andrew a "whiner" as Phil Gramm says? This may be the eleventh bank failure of 2008 but what stands out here is that Andrew McCain sat on the board of Silver State Bank and was on their audit committee. Did he notice something during his time on the audit committee of a failing bank, causing him to leave? Would a quick departure even be appropriate in the middle of such a difficult time? Either way, there is something strange about the McCain's and failing financial institutions. The Keating Five was bad enough but for a family to get caught up in two failed banks is a stunning coincidence.

For the second time in eleven days, another bank has gone bust due to the real estate bubble bursting. At the end of August, Christian bank Integrity Bancshares went under and yesterday Silver State Bank failed and insured deposits were acquired by Nevada State Bank. For a breakdown of the eleven failed banks year to date, this page provides a good overview of the financials including the cost to the FDIC deposit insurance fund. IndyMac continues to lead the pack with almost $9 billion though the year is still young.

The Bush administration's interventionist policies have come much too late to the credit crisis. Years of neglect and failure to provide basic oversight has left the US on the verge of recession yet if you listened to the GOP convention, nothing has been said about the economy. Nothing at all. McCain is hoping that Americans will accept his personal history (excluding the Keating Five scandal, deep ties to Phil Gramm and rumored McCain choice for Treasury Secretary and his first marriage issues) instead of paying attention to the everyday world around them.

More bank failures will be coming, putting more pressure on the FDIC to support failed institutions. This will force the FDIC to require even more from banks who will then pass along the higher costs to potential borrowers. Higher costs and stricter standards for loans may be required at the moment but it's not going to help the US dig itself out of the housing/credit crisis hole. For this reason, talking about the economy is a dangerous topic for McCain. Maybe he ought to run and hide in Alaska too.

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Say Nothing. Know Nothing

video details and more

CNN - Biden hits GOP on economy

copyright ? 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

What do you talk about when you, a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate have nothing good to say of yourself?  What can be said to encourage people to endorse you when your proposed policies will hurt them?  What do you talk about when you cannot explain, the last years that define the failure of your Party?  

You speak of others.  Then, no one will notice what you do not want them to acknowledge.  When you are not as wondrous as people hope you will be, criticize someone else.  Slice, dice, and place people on the defensive.  Lessen the worth of one who looms too large for your liking.  Then, attention will be diverted away from you.  A common enemy can be your cause.  If people in your Party have someone to actively oppose they will joyfully join you in a quest to conquer.
If you have nothing good to say of yourself or your plans, consider the options.  You might lie by omission.  Certainly, what someone does not know will not hurt him or her, or more importantly, you will not be scathed.  Build on a your personal tale. We have all experienced pain and suffering.  A real-life crisis will cause a heart to bleed.  People relate to a sad saga or a situation.  Perceived strength can be an asset.  Everyone loves a survivor.  As a society, we admire those who sacrifice.  Be that person, the saint who suffers in silence, or share the story of a sympathetic son, a daughter, a husband, or wife.

When you have nothing to say that might help endear you to those you most wish to influence, then say nothing of the economic decline that you helped to create.  Do not remind the many of a corporate culture that endorses you and yet, denies people adequate pay or employment.  If your words will cause worry to those who have lost income and a sense of self then do not dare mention the numbers out of work.  As a Party or person who permits big business to outsource jobs, you must not speak of opportunities that no longer exist for the poor and Middle Class here at home.

The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in August, its highest level in five years, pushing the troubles of American workers to the center of the political debate as the presidential campaign enters its final weeks.

For the eighth consecutive month, the nation's employers shed jobs, 84,000 last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.  In all, 605,000 jobs have been lost since January.  The steady rise in unemployment, from 5.7 percent in July and 5 percent in April, is one that many economists associate with recession.
U.S. Jobless Rate Climbs Past 6%, Highest Since '03
By Louis Uchitelle
The New York Times.
September 5, 2008

If you are among the rich or the Right who deny health care coverage to all children, and to every citizen do not speak of the millions who must declare bankruptcy due to an illness.  Do not tell the tale the  will push people away from you at the polls.  If you have nothing, good to say of the medical coverage your Administration will offer say nothing at all.  Surely, you cannot quote the analysis.  You do not wish for people to ponder.

In the July 23 update of its analysis, Tax Policy Center (TPC) added a preliminary estimate of the candidates' health care proposals.  Because the campaigns did not provide complete plans, TPC assumed certain details.  We conclude that the McCain plan, which would replace the current exclusion for employer-paid premiums with a refundable income tax credit of up to $5000 for anyone purchasing of health insurance and make other changes to the healthcare system, would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years and modestly trim the number of uninsured.  

The Obama plan, which would make relatively low-cost insurance available to everyone through non-group pools and subsidize premiums for low and moderate-income households, would cost $1.6 trillion, but would also cover virtually all children and many currently uninsured adults.
A Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans
Executive Summary of the August 15, 2008 analysis
By Roberton Williams and Howard Gleckman
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

As a candidate who wishes to tax the Middle Class, and not the affluent, do not tell the masses what you will do once in the Oval Office.  They cannot know for a common man or woman will not cast a ballot if they see or hear the projected statistics.  There is no need to remind millions of Americans of what will alienate them, the actual reality.

The Obama plan would reduce taxes for low and moderate-income families, but raise them significantly for high-bracket taxpayers (see Figure 2).  By 2012, middle-income taxpayers would see their after-tax income rise by about 5 percent, or nearly $2,200 annually.  Those in the top 1 percent would face a $19,000 average tax increase-a 1.5 percent reduction in after-tax income.

McCain would lift after-tax incomes an average of about 3 percent, or $1,400 annually, for middle-income taxpayers by 2012.  But, in sharp contrast to Obama, he would cut taxes for those in the top 1% by more than $125,000, raising their after-tax income an average 9.5 percent.
A Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans
Executive Summary of the August 15, 2008 analysis
By Roberton Williams and Howard Gleckman
Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Say nothing or say what will generate gratitude for you, for your service, for your chutzpah.  Be bold.  Be brave.  Be brassy.  Be brazen, just be safe.  Say nothing of what will bring attention to you.  Divorce yourself from your political past and your Party.  Be the agent of covert change.  Certainly, that is what citizens who know nothing of what you have not said will believe in.

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http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=22851

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A (mc)cranky thought for the day: Say, didja hear
that Young Johnny McC was once a POW

Just kidding. Of course you've heard about Johnny "A Noun, a Verb, and POW" McCranky having been a POW. If for no other reason than that he mentions it roughly every time he opens his mouth. Apparently even as skilled a liar as the Crankyman can't make up enough whoppers fast enough to fill all that time when his gums are flapping.

What's more the jackals and hyenas who mastermind and promote his campaign usually manage to work it into every sentence. As Frank Rich pointed out a few weeks ago, McCranky's POW-dom is the one thing American know about him which is actually more or less true.

Now, no one will tell you more often or at greater length than the Crankyman how badly he doesn't want to talk about having been a POW. Why, he reminds us of this most every time he talks about having been a POW. And this is totally understandable. In addition to those being surely painful memories, Young Johnny would surely never wish to cheapen his captivity by exploiting it for sleazy political gain. Bravo, Young Johnny!

This thought only just occurred to me, and I offer it as a cheery thought for the day:

Can you imagine what it would be like if Young Johnny did want to talk about his POW experience?
#

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http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/09/mccranky-thought-for-day-say-didja-he
ar.html

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New Yorker cover spotlights McCain’s
houses, foreclosure crisis.

The cover of the new issue of the New Yorker spotlights Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) multiple houses, contrasting his wealth with the foreclosure crisis many Americans are struggling with:

ThinkProgress spoke with New Yorker spokeswoman Alexa Cassanos, who said that the McCain cover is in no way intended to be a response to the controversy over the satirical Obama cover in July.

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http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/06/new-yorker-mccain/

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Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Lotta opinion out there:

Mike Murphy:

About the loneliest precinct in the GOP these days is the one reserved for troublesome Republicans who think Gov. Sarah Palin was a poor VP choice, even after The Speech. Well, here I am. Hello? Anybody else? Wow, there is a big echo in here...

Bob Herbert: The Republicans can run but they can't hide.

If there were any good ideas at this convention of mostly rich and mostly right-wing delegates about how to haul the country out of this mess that the G.O.P. has gotten it into, they were kept well hidden. Perhaps they were tucked away behind the more prominently displayed creationism and "just-say-no to global warming" documents.

Gail Collins:

John McCain is not actually running for president. He’s running for Senate majority leader. All his passion is directed at defects in the legislative process. He’s been a military man or a senator for virtually all of his adult life, and listening to him talk, you get the definite impression that the two great threats of the 21st century are Islamic extremism and the appropriations committee.

Bill Schneider:

To put it another way: Do people feel that their economic problems are caused by government spending and high taxes? They certainly did in 1980, but it's 28 years later.

It's always been an article of belief among Republicans that they lost the 2006 congressional elections because of their abandonment of one of these core Republican principles and their embrace of federal overspending.

That's simply not true; they lost because of Iraq. But they refuse to believe it.

Reuters:

"Everybody pays attention to the mobilizing affect on the right but equally important is the mobilizing affect that Palin's nomination makes for the left," said Michael Lindsay, a political sociologist at Rice University in Houston who has written extensively on the U.S. evangelical movement.

We can vouch for that.

Michael Gerson: Both conventions had pedestrian speeches, and worst of all, none were written by me, but McCain's was far better than Obama's because he was a POW and Obama's a Democrat.

Charles Lane: McCain's speech was awful even if he was a POW.

James Taranto: McCain completely refuted and destroyed his critics' claim he's a war-monger. In his acceptance speech in front of Walter Reed Middle School, he said he wasn't.

The Economist: "John McCain’s choice of running-mate raises serious questions about his judgment"

The moose in the room, of course, is her lack of experience.

Charlie Cook:

Given this year's strong "change" climate, Bush's unpopularity, the tendency for voters to want to give the other party a chance after one has controlled the White House for two terms, and the current Democratic advantage in voters' party identification, this race ought to be a sure thing for the Democratic nominee. But resistance to Obama is making it close--just as a stool with only three of its legs can stand but is shaky. Whether the fourth leg is defined as whites over 50, working-class whites, or whites over 65, McCain's challenge this week is to firm up his grip and keep Obama from adding the final leg to the stool.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/cW-gHoKtJ-c/89124

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Nitpicking

There are plenty of issues in the career of Sarah Palin that deserve a hefty amount of scrutiny, so I'm only going to give this one a few seconds.The McCain camp is reveling in her sale of the governor's jet on eBay. McCain himself said yesterday, "You[...]

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In Touch With Small Town America

h/t Jesus General

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http://liberaljournal.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-touch-with-small-town-america.html

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Hell in Haiti - Ike Update in Comments.

Cross-posted from my blog, The Wild Wild Left.My friend went to The Dominican Republic a few years back. Staying at a Gated Resort, she mentioned how the worst part was getting there. Apparently the tour bus had to pass nearby the machine gun border[...]

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