Mudflats
Tiptoeing Through the Muck of Alaskan Politics
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Mudflats 
As a future hockey mom (in WI) I love this one!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for taking the time and making the effort to tell the other side of the story. You are providing a wonderful example of how individuals can truly make a difference in our democracy! Free speech and free expression are beautiful and effective ways to spread the truth. I hope that you have contacted the major network news organizations with a press release about your event. It will be a powerful counter-statement to the Palin popularity propaganda we are hearing from the right-wingers. Again, many thanks for your fine work!
Now that’s brilliant.
THANK YOU to this website from a male in Texas for showing this side of the story. It is very heartening see it.
asenath1az, your post leaves me with a couple of questions
Do you mean to say that the Republicans have started a jihad against Palin? Because that’s what the words you typed express. (Think about what ‘Islamic Jihad’ means and compare that to your use of ‘Republican Jihad’)
And are you saying that locals in the Obama camp were the people who showed up? Isn’t that an obvious conclusion, that those opposed to the Republican ticket were demonstrating against one of their candidates?
And one correction: Fox News (and all the other major new outlets) reported that Obama raised $66 million in August, not that they have that amount total. All told, the Obama campaign says it has 77 million dollars in its coffers. Also reported was that there were 500,000 new donors to his campaign. Another way to say it is that half a million Americans decided to join the existing 2 million Obama donors in spending their own money to support him.
To close, you are absolutely free to vote for whoever you wish. And I am damn thankful that I live in a country that affords you and I that right. Just as thankful as I am to live in a country that allows you to post your views and for me to post mine.
But one thing the Constitution does not guarantee is freedom from dishonest and incompetent leaders and their supporters. We the citizens and voters have that responsibility.
asenath 1 az: Please speak for yourself. I am a Democratic woman and plan on voting for Obama as well as Many others (as well as Independents) that I know.
revolution!
Asenath1Az could have stopped at ‘Fox News’, those words speak volumes.
I find the picture refreshing! Also, I really can’t believe I hear people say they will vote for this woman only because she is a woman. That is very insulting to we females who happen to have brains and use them.
May I suggest for people like the aforementioned human to look up voting records and do your own research. If you are going by the campaign ads and the things you hear on the news, you are truly sad. Please comment back when Obama is elected and you are finally able to afford food AND gas. I for one would like to hear what tune you will be singing then.
in response to Jeri in Va.
I’m sure that we will be able to afford food AND gas.. hmm. let’s think for a sec. we’ve got trillions of dollars in debt. obama wants to install more programs, more government control, which in turn requires, um, money. so, what do you think will happen??? TAXES!
do you really think that after obama is elected, we will afford food AND gas? really? please comment back and inform me if i am mistaken
response to Eric in Texas (12:54:48)
I realize that the $66,000,000 was in August, that was an example of Obama’s cash flow. I still wonder how much of the $77,000,000 from this month..yes it was on the news today,
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/14/obama-camp-reports-66m-in-donations-in-august/ is flowing into Alaska??
Maybe a few Obama financial incentives to protest and be photographed?
Or maybe alot of time wasted on the vigilante Republican VP JiHad..
*vig·i·lan·te: : a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) ; broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
*Republican VP: that would Sarah Palin
*ji·had : –noun
1. a holy war undertaken as a sacred duty by Muslims.
2. any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.
Those vigilantes (self-appointed doers of justice) against Republican VP (Sarah Palin) that are on a JiHad (a vigorous, emotional crusade for their idea or principle.)
There seems to be alot of time spent on this crusade against Sarah Palin..and not the issues. Why?
*cruade: -noun
3. any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc.:
So Alaska please respond to these issues….
Yes the RNC has lobbyists..the DNC was over the top!
Democratic Convention…brought to you by Corporate America!
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WorldNews/popup?id=5652277&contentIndex=1&page=1&start=false
Reporter pushed around…he was investigating lobbyists at the DNC
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5670682
Lobbyists and loopholes at the DNC…ABC’s “The Money Trail”
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5665854
Why does a candidate need to spend $500,000 to refurbish a plane…remove the American flag from the tail and put his logo on it..seriously…so what if Rockefeller donated the plane to him..$500,000??
Speaking of Rockefeller…
Obama’s financial ties Rockefeller
By Lynn Sweeton, suntimes.com, July 8, 2008 9:46 PM
…Our night began at The Rocks, Jay Rockefeller’s chateau away from chateau deep in the hills of Rock Creek Park. To reach the site of this particular Obama fundraiser, you wind along the edges of Rock Creek Park and then turn up a steep, long, hey mistah Rockefeller, howabout $3000 to shovel your driveway sort of entryway.
There are oaks and Chestnut trees and then there’s the house, with four Ionic columns and a slate roof and 17 windows across the front and the Rockefellers apparently suffer no critical shortage of guest bedrooms. It is a useful reminder that before the Gates and Bloomberg and Warren B., there was old man John D. Rockefeller, who bequeathed successive generations of descendants a truly astonishing boodle of money.
But I digress. The fundraiser was standard issue, if it’s Tuesday night aren’t we dropping $28,500 per to dine with Barack? Your faithful scribes sat outside in an air-conditioned van whilst drinks were sipped. Then a staffer led us to an ante-room, where we noticed “The Reclining Bather” by Pablo Picasso. Just a thought, but I’d place a mid-two figures wager it was not a print. In time, waiters served appetizers, a summer tropics crab salad, and a tell-tale tinkling of glasses indicated that the hoi polloi (that would be us) might wander into the dining room hear the remarks.
Sharon and Jay Rockefeller extolled their candidate, as the best, the brightest, and “profoundly intelligent.” Mrs. Rockefeller noted that her father, Charles H. Percy, once occupied the senate seat now held by the candidate.
Barack Obama stood beneath a crystal chandelier and gave a fairly low key speech touching on familiar themes. He thanked Howard Dean, who sat in the corner, for his leadership of the Democratic National Committee, noting that the former Vermont governor came up with the 50-state strategy that Obama now hews to. To buttress his case, Obama quoted the “famous political strategist” Woody Allen, who opined that “90 percent of life is just showing up.” The candidate noted that he hoped to inspire, JFK-like, the young to public service. “One of the things I think we might be able to do is make government cool again,” he said. “And that is desperately needed.”
And with that he finished and the press was escorted out by the John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassat paintings and the funders were left behind to munch on filet of beef with a Mustard-Cognac sauce, a potato nest and so on, all washed down with sundry American and French wines. By desert, chocolate Corinthian glaces are alleged to have appeared, though your scribes had long departed. From there, we took off for a hotel off Connecticut Avenue in Woodley Park, where various geeks and wonks stood in a more industrial strength hall and showered techno-dollars on Obama. This group of 550 included his Harvard law school buddy Julius Genachowski and the monetary stakes at this one were, well, almost pedestrian, costing a mere $2,300 to sip a drink with the famously abstemious candidate. Flusher types, however, were encouraged to pay $2300 for a VIP reception with the candidate. Jay Rockefeller again did the openings, this time opining that for the first time in more than 40 years “I’ve met the man, the only person I’ve really wanted to see as president.” Hold that thought: Not Johnson? Not Robert Kennedy, or McGovern or Carter or Mondale or Dukakis or Clinton or Gore? Not even big John Kerry? So there’s the list. Unfortunately, we could obtain no answers as Obama pool rules state that we can stare at and listen to the participants but no touching or talking.
What’s behind the Obama healthcare program..let’s look at the facts
Obama is holding firm to his party’s commitment to full government control — but doing all he can to hide this fact from the public.
That may turn out to be easier said than done. Obama is already on record pledging his allegiance to a single-payer approach, like those now operating in Canada and the United Kingdom. But Obama now says that his apparent 2003 endorsement of a government takeover, captured on a video that was posted on YouTube, was a misunderstanding. What he really meant, he now says, is that if the U.S. were starting from scratch, he would favor a single-payer plan. But since we aren’t starting over, he wants to build on the current employer-based system, not replace it.
That would be reassuring to millions of swing voters who want reform but don’t want to lose their job-based plans — if it were true. But in health care, the devil really is in the details. And despite Obama’s rhetoric and protestations, his plan would destroy employer-based insurance, not preserve it, by pricing it out of business and subsidizing government-run alternatives. That would put the country on a fast track to government-run health care for everyone.
The Obama plan is built on four interrelated provisions. First, he would impose on all employers a new “pay or play” mandate. Businesses would be forced to either offer coverage and pay a substantial portion of the premium or else pay a tax to the federal government. Second, he would create a new national insurance exchange, through which uninsured Americans and others who don’t have employer-based insurance would get their coverage. The government would dictate what would and would not be covered by the insurance offered through the exchange. Third, he would include among its offerings a new, government-run insurance option. And fourth, he would offer expensive new subsidies to offset the premiums for millions of low- to moderate-income households that get their insurance through the exchange.
The fallout from such a plan is entirely predictable. Under “pay or play,” employers would find it increasingly attractive to drop their company-sponsored plans in favor of paying the tax. The tax, after all, would be based on wages, not health care, and wage growth has lagged far behind health-care cost inflation for more than three decades. Over time, without other reforms, paying the tax would almost certainly be less expensive for most businesses than organizing coverage themselves. And with the government making other options available, employers would finally be able to drop their insurance plans without simply abandoning their workers.
As more and more employers chose to “pay” instead of “play,” millions of workers would be pushed into the national insurance exchange, where they would, in theory, have a choice between private insurance and the new, publicly run option. Obama and other Democrats like to say this structure would foster healthy competition between the public and private sectors. But this would not be real, market-style competition. The government would run the new, public insurance option just as it runs Medicare and Medicaid, with plenty of price controls and cost shifting. Doctors and hospitals would have no choice but to accept the government-dictated fees imposed by a federal bureaucracy. These below-market fees would allow the public option to charge premiums considerably lower than those charged by private insurers. And with these artificially low premiums, the public insurance option would become the de facto plan of choice for millions of workers. A recent analysis of an Obama-like plan projected 40 million new enrolle
es in the public option in Year One. That would be like doubling the size of Medicare — overnight.
Once the plan had been set in motion, the momentum toward a full government takeover would be impossible to reverse. Congress would have every incentive to cut doctor and hospital fees further, to control the costs of the new insurance subsidies promised by Obama. It would not be long before private insurers, lacking this ability to control their costs by fiat, abandoned the marketplace entirely.
…This is what ObamaCare would mean for U.S. consumers. It would vastly expand costs and government control, even as Medicare and Medicaid already threaten to push the federal budget deficit to dangerous levels. If most of the country is enrolled in publicly sponsored insurance, as the Obama plan implies, fiscal reality will push Congress to adopt ever more draconian cost-control measures. It will only be a matter of time before stories start circulating, as they do in other countries, of months-long waits for treatment, and of care denied to patients who fall outside formal or informal “guidelines” for providing services.
And what about your candidates slant on equal pay for women…
By CASEY B. MULLIGAN, The Wall Street Journal
September 13, 2008
Article Excerpt:
Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joseph Biden have proclaimed that they favor equal pay for women, and have alleged that Republicans do not. Sen. Biden has also insisted that Republicans, including vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, represent a step backwards for women. The economic record says exactly the opposite.
I have used labor market data from the Census Bureau to study the amount and reasons for women’s progress in the labor market since the 1960s. One byproduct of my study is a calculation of women’s relative wage growth by presidential administration.
In 1980 — the last full year of the Jimmy Carter administration — the typical woman (older than school age, but younger than retirement age) working full time throughout the year earned 38.5% less per hour than did the typical man in the same age bracket working full time throughout the year. When women earn less per hour than men — even in full-time work — that is known as the gender wage gap. When the gender wage gap narrows, women’s wages have grown relative to men’s.
The gender wage gap was 38.6% in 1976, the last full year of the Gerald Ford administration. By this measure, women made only infinitesimal progress toward equal wages during the four Carter years; women’s wages were essentially stagnant relative to men’s. In 1988, the last full year of the Ronald Reagan administration, women working full time throughout the year earned 30.3% less per hour than did men. A 30.3% gender wage gap is obviously not full equality. But it is much closer to equality than it was at the end of the Carter administration. Women’s wages grew almost two percentage points per year more than men’s during the Reagan years, compared to less than 0.1 percentage point more than men’s per year during the Carter years.
The nearby chart shows the results for all of the administrations since Lyndon Johnson (I pool Richard Nixon and Ford). Johnson, Carter and Bill Clinton were all Democrats, yet none of them witnessed much labor market progress for women during their administrations. Essentially all of the labor-market progress for women occurred during Republican administrations: eight years of Reagan, four years of George H.W. Bush, and six years of George W. Bush (I do not yet have the data for the last two years of the current administration).
By 2006, the gender wage gap had narrowed to 21%. The Nixon-Ford administrations were the only Republican administrations that failed to witness significant reduction in the gender wage gap during their terms.
Sen. Obama says that he wants equal pay for women. If the historical record is any guide, the best way to achieve this is to work for a labor market that creates opportunities for women like it did during the Reagan and the Bush years. At the Reagan-Bush years’ pace, the gender wage gap in 2016 would be down to about 12%. At the Carter-Clinton years’ pace, women will not see new opportunities, and the gender pay gap will be essentially where it is today.
And don’t forget…Big Brother is watching you..Obama voted yes..not good!!!
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress – 2nd Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary
Question: On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 6304 )
Vote Number: 168 Vote Date: July 9, 2008, 02:47 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Bill Passed
Measure Number: H.R. 6304 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 )
Measure Title: A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 69
NAYs 28
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting / Obama (D-IL), Yea / Biden (D-DE), Nay / Clinton (D-NY), Nay
On June 20, the House passed H.R. 6304, an unconstitutional surveillance bill that sanctions warrantless wiretapping and hands immunity to telecommunications companies for their role in domestic spying. Talking Points on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (7/1/2008)
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 is an unconstitutional bill that would significantly modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It grants sweeping new monitoring powers to the government with little court oversight, and ensures the dismissal of all pending cases against telecommunication companies.
The FISA Amendments Act was passed by the House of Representatives in June. The Senate is expected to vote on the legislation on Tuesday, July 8. Senators should be urged to vote against this unconstitutional bill…the FISA Amendments Act:
• Gives the president broad new powers to spy on innocent Americans’ phone calls and emails – even when they have no connection to terrorism. It legalizes mass, untargeted and unwarranted spying on our international phone calls and emails.
• Restricts judicial oversight of the surveillance program. The FISA court will not know who, what or where will actually be monitored, and the government can continue a spying program even after it has been denied by the court.
• Provides retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies for their role in the president’s domestic spying program. The test in the bill is not whether government certifications sent to the companies were actually legal – only whether they were issued.
Oh wow. That’s a lot of effort pasting that much stuff into picture #17 on a blog entry somewhere in Alaska. It might even have been readable if you could have kept the paragraphs intact when you posted the pubbie talking points into the blog.
Dear asenath1az
You have the right to your opinion and to vote for the LIARS that McCain/Palin and their lobbyists staff are but do not try to spread lies yourself about who attended the rally. The two women who organized it are Alaskans as everyone who lives in Alaska already knows since moron radio host Burke announced their address and phone numbers on his show. The attendees at the rally were all Alaskans too!
Peace and I will be voting for HOPE not LIES!
Thank you to all who attended the WOMEN REJECT PALIN RALLY!!!!!!!!!!!
asenath1az=republican troll.
I’m so proud of you guys! It makes me feel so good to see you acting like Americans and taking a stand up there in Alaska. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Just vote Rep. and let grown-ups run the country.
90% of the libs live in their parents basements anyway.
when they go to vote it gives time to change the locks!
THIS democrate women is ignorante
Isn’t America wonderful. Opinions, whether informed or not, have equal say in the mainstream and not so mainstream press. Even though I’m voting McCain/Palin, I love the banter of this roll. It reminds me that when all is said and done, both sides can sit down together over pizza and beer and talk about how bad each other’s positions are.
I LOVE AMERICA!
So let me ask you again Alaska!
Why are you spending so much time on this crusade against Sarah Palin..and not the issues..Why?
*crusade: -noun
3. any vigorous, aggressive movement for the defense or advancement of an idea, cause, etc.:
Seems like alot of time wasted on this vigilante Republican VP JiHad.
*vig·i·lan·te: : a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate) ; broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
*Republican VP: that would Sarah Palin
*ji·had : –noun
2. any vigorous, emotional crusade for an idea or principle.
*Vigilantes (self-appointed doers of justice) against Republican VP (Sarah Palin) that are on a JiHad (a vigorous, emotional crusade for their idea or principle).
I find it very interesting tonight on CNN that their discussion panel, which included Ed Schultz…aka your
https://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/the-ed-schultz-shows-town-hall-meeting-in-anchorage/ was talking about the anti Palin rally he witnessed..banners on the streets. Saying he saw over 2000 people line the streets of Anchorage when he flew to Alaska to investigate Palin.
“There were between 1400 and 1500 rally-goers, and about 90 at the counter rally according to an observer who went through the crowd with a counter. Anchorage police estimated “more than 1500”.
Okay maybe he exaggerated tonight on CNN..maybe he wanted to make it look more dramatic..anyway you look at it, it raises questions.
So you attend Ed Schultz at $100 a ticket..get all fired up..rally together..why?
Did the money from the Schultz event go to charity, was any sent to help the victims of Gustav or hurricane Ike?
Was your money put right back into your community from Ed Schultz or other Democrates?
Or was that $100 a ticket used as a tax write off for the Obama campaign?
They come to Alaska gather information then sit on CNN talk about Sarah Palin..sure Mudflats gets a small ireport link on CNN from their visits..but nothing more.
What’s the purpose of all this? What will you get as Alaskans after the election? Why all this crusading against Sarah Palin? Why don’t you talk about national issues? All seems somewhat suspicious.
I am uplifted to see the good women of Alaska turning out in droves to stand up against the deceit and smear tactics put forth by the McCain/Palin ticket.
” You Go Girls ! ”
To asenath.. You have swallowed the KoolAide. You, apparently, are a very angry person who has a bit too much time on her hands. Perhaps you could volunteer for your local animal shelter, or spend time at a local elementary school helping the teachers. Certainly that would be more rewarding than posting here…
and to your question “Or was that $100 a ticket used as a tax write off for the Obama campaign?” Well, yes. I certainly hope so. It’s what our laws allow.
I was born in Alaska haven’t been back since I was a small child, I am so proud to see my home state excercising their rights as American voters. Even when conservative radio and TV said the McPalin ticket was a done deal just sit back and take it, smart hard working women pushed back. These are the type of women who make history and are true leaders, not the blow hard in the glasses and the beehive we have had to endure.
She may be smart and well spoken but she is a product of the extreme in her party and it appears moved forward by powerful men. What is feminist about that? Keep up the good work Alaska, we will win because we don’t hate the Rep’s it is not an us against them issue for me, I just happen to believe and know that at this time in history they are the wrong leaders to move th is great country of ours in the right direction. So I will close with this piece of information forwarded to me it is food for thought.
Spinderella
If you’re a minority and you’re selected for a job over more qualified candidates you’re a “token hire.”
If you’re a conservative and you’re selected for a job over more qualified candidates you’re a “game changer.”
Black teen pregnancies? A “crisis” in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A “blessed event.”
If you grow up in Hawaii you’re “exotic.”
Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you’re the quintessential “American story.”
Similarly, if you name your kid Barack, you’re “unpatriotic.”
Name your kid Track, you’re “colorful.”
If you’re a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the individual you’re “reckless.”
A Republican who doesn’t fully vet is a “maverick.”
If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African American voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.
If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you’ve got the most executive experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.
If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of people you are an “arrogant celebrity”.
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are “energizing the base”.
If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his own decisions you are “presumptuous”.
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you refuse to explain, you are a “shoot from the hip” maverick.
If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are “an elitist-out of touch” with the real America.
If you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of Annapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.
If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an “empty suit”.
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an “experienced executive”.
If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are “extremist”.
If you believe in creationism and don’t believe global warming is man made, you are “strongly principled”.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom you’ve been wed to for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you’re “risky”.
If you’re a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her water breaks to seek medical attention, you’re an irresponsible parent, endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you’re a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you’re spunky.
If you’re a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you “First dog.”
If you’re a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the right-wing press calls you “beautiful” and “courageous.”
If you kill an endangered species, you’re an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion your not a Christian, you’re a murderer (forget about if it happen while being date raped.)
If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If you’re a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and are encouraged to run for re-election.
If you’re a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have an affair, your political career is over and your wife who has terminal cancer is to blame.
And finally:
Quiz question for the RNC, specifically those on the Religious Right. Who is one of the most revered, and famous community organizers in history?
I got a chuckle from your comment jonboy:)
Angry person? When I read all the comments on Mudflats, seems the anger is here, so vigilante, hostile.
Why this crusade against Sarah Palin, why???
As far as volunteering, I think everyone should do that. I went to New Orleans with 65 youth 9 months after Katrina hit. We stayed a week in a church with 150 other youth and volunteers from around the country. Our jobs were to go into different neighborhoods, gut out houses, getting them ready for reconstruction. I think everyone should continue volunteering, we help out locally, Habitat for Humanity..excellent organization.
To much free time, not with teenagers in the house, being on the PTO board for 7 years, working part-time as a certified teacher, working on our research company’s website…my life is blessed.
Having better things to do than post on here…this is a minimal part of my time. What seems odd on this site is how much effort goes into destroying Sarah Palin..why?
I still wonder how much the Obama elite is behind some of this movement..
here’s some more “cut and paste”
Associated Press
DENVER —
“How does Barack Obama lure wealthy donors to a big-money fundraiser in Hollywood? Bring in Barbra Streisand as the headline performer. The Oscar-winning singer and actress was to perform Tuesday night on Obama’s behalf in Beverly Hills. It was to be a two-step evening with a reception and dinner costing $28,500 a person followed by a later event featuring Streisand at $2,500 a ticket. Obama was flying to Los Angeles after an appearance Tuesday morning in a Denver suburb.”
“Barbra Streisand will be among the headliners at a fund-raiser for Barack Obama on Sept. 16, where she will perform for the presidential candidate at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The plans for the event were outlined this morning and Streisand confirmed that she would take the stage. The hotel ballroom holds an estimated 700 people. Obama’s fund-raiser is expected to be his final visit to raise money here before the general election. Obama will start the evening with a 5 p.m. dinner event for about 250 people at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, the historic estate once owned by the legendary Doheny family. Tickets for the event are $28,500. Later, he will attend a reception at the Beverly Wilshire, followed by Streisand’s special performance. Tickets for the event are $2,500 per person.
Co-hosts for event include the DreamWorks team of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, as well as political consultant Andy Spahn. It’s also being organized with Obama’s Southern California finance team.”
One more excessive example of the Obama elite…
Why would a candidate who has $77,000,000 in his campaign funds need to have a fundraiser at $31,000 a pop?
There are alot of Americans who work an entire year, making $31,000…
asenath1az, you might want to be more concerned about the $66 million dollars obama raised AFTER the Palin pick was announced. that’s what you might want to focus on since you apparently can’t focus on the many, many, many, issues following Gov. Palin.
The Obama elite? Is that a new expression? McCain married money, dosn’t know how many homes he owns and Obama is elite. That’s rich. Obama knows the rest of us poor schmucks can’t afford to give him cash what with the way the idgits in DC have thrown the economy in the dumper. Hollywood can help out and why not? I, for one am appreciatiative, since I could only afford $5 to send along. ‘Ya think McCain’s crowd will even know people like me exist? I doubt it.
The Obama elite..one more example!
Associated Press, FOXNEWS etc.
It was all over the news this afternoon.
Top Recipients of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008
Name Office State Party Grand Total
Dodd, Christopher S CT D $165,400
Obama, Barack S IL D $126,349
Kerry, John S MA D $111,000
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Invest in Lawmakers
When the federal government announced two months ago that it would prop up mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CRP looked at how much money members of Congress had collected since 1989 from the companies. On Sunday the government completely took over the two government-sponsored enterprises, and we’ve returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July they posted the top 25). These totals are based on data released electronically from the FEC on Sept. 2 and include contributions to lawmakers’ leadership PACs and candidate committees from the floundering companies’ PACs and employees. Current members of Congress have received a total of $4.8 million from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with Democrats collecting 57 percent of that. This week we also wrote about how much money lawmakers had invested of their own money in the companies last year–a total of up to $1.7 million.
John McCain is 58th on the list, with $21,000 contribution.
I downloaded the whole list, 500 plus members of congress, it will be intersting to see if there are any Senators from Alaska on the list.
Why can’t anyone tell me the purpose of this crusade against Sarah Palin?
Whats the purpose..still seems suspicious?
You really want to hear the purpose of this “crusade” against Sarah Palin?
Really?
Okay, I’ll tell you. It’s pretty simple.
The purpose is: Love. Of. Country.
That’s it. That is the honest to God’s truth. And if one looks at all the facts objectively, it can be the only answer. For 8 years, we have watched as the Bush administration has literally destroyed this once great nation. We have watched as a Governor with a dubious track record of success, an unwavering belief in his own gut, and a blind devotion to his faith has brought this country to the brink of chaos.
I am not speaking metaphorically, sir or madam, and I am not making this up. This is what we have witnessed, and this is the mess we are all now struggling to correct.
Along comes Sarah Palin who is so closely mimicking Bush’s modus operandi, it forces the jaw to plummet. She lied about the bridge to nowhere. She lied about earmarks. She is too ignorant in current affairs to explain the Bush doctrine or speak mildly intelligently about affairs in Washington. She has absolutely no understanding of the war in Iraq…
I could go on and on and on. I could mention that her supposedly perfect faith-based beliefs have one kid hooked on oxycontin and another about to become a teen mother. Don’t bring her kids into this, you might say? I damn well will when she would presume to parade them in front of the world as model citizens OR tell me that we have to clean up our culture.
Shoot, I have to actually get back to work now… suffice to say, my friend, if you really look at the facts from unbiased sources, you will understand that those who love their country are wisely taking a stand against yet another preposterously inept, unqualified, pathological liar of a president.
And don’t forget the fact of who will run the show when old man McCain kicks the bucket. You’ve got to be completely out of your mind if you think she can or will do it.
These posts have been educational. But the postings of asenath1az seem to be the most angry on here. I guess he/she is just defending their political choice.
The only thing I want to add is that it doesn’t matter who we elect – taxes are going to be raised! There is simply no other way to get us out of the deep hole the current administration has helped put us in. So McCain/Palin can say Obama is going to raise your taxes, but I promise, if he gets elected he will too! So unless a Republican can tell me some other REAL reason why I shouldn’t look to Obama other than ‘he will raise your taxes’ or actually tell me something that McCain will do other than raise taxes to help us out of this situtation, I’m voting Democrat.
Besides all of the above mentioned qualities lacking in Sarah Palin, which should already exclude her from being a candidate, I am amazed that so many people consider her a role model. A person who kills wolves (their carcasses hanging from the planes), to level the playing field so she has more moose to kill! You want to talk about right to life, what about the rights of these animals to life. This is such cold and cruel behavior, and I think we should all reject leaders that live their lives this way. Where is humanity in all of this!
I would have to say I find most of the bloggers on here extremely angry, especially towards Sarah Palin. I agree with MissouriGirl no matter who wins taxes will go up and having this viglante crusade towards Sarah Palin isn’t going to matter. What happens if McCain/Palin doesn’t win, where do you think Sarah will come home to..Alaska and all these Alaskans who have been trying to linch her. Then what?? What will it matter then..we will still be paying taxes while Obama changes our democracy into a socialism with his “global economy”. His word “globalization” is nothing more than the modern version of George HW Bushes words..New World Order.
The facts are still the same Obama’s advisers are the who’s who of the Clinton Administration..not to mention his team of Harvard lawyers, his peers from the early days.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/16188/#3
His current economic adviser is the CEO of Fannie Mae, one of his VP choices was Dodd who was Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and is current top economic advisor to Obama
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html
Wow. 1400 out of an entire state? That is laughable. Nice try, but her 80% approval rating trumps the 5% uncertain and 15% that disapprove of her. Americans, as well as Alaskans, are very taken with her. I think she is great! Go Palin!
Found this article…very interesting!!!!!!!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/23/biden.earmarks/index.html
Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice. Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show. And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.
An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana. But Biden and Obama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country.
“That is probably the most disturbing element of this and the campaigning on the Bridge to Nowhere,” said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, a taxpayer watchdog group. “Because, yes, they had a chance to vote specifically against the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska to redirect the money to people, to bridges and infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Katrina going in to New Orleans, and they chose not to.” The final version passed the Senate 93-1. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made his opposition to congressional “pork-barrel” spending a cornerstone of his campaign, did not vote on either the Coburn amendment or the final bill. Palin, whom McCain chose as his running mate in August, has regaled crowds at the Republican convention and on the campaign trail with her declaration of “Thanks, but no thanks” for the bridge. But her conversion came after she became Alaska’s governor in 2006 and after the bridge became a national symbol of congressional waste. The record shows that she supported the bridge as a gubernatorial candidate, and Democrats have seized on the flip-flop, perhaps no one with as much relish as Biden.
“I got also a bridge I got to sell you here, and guess what, it’s in Alaska, and it goes nowhere,” Biden mocked Palin on the campaign trail last week in Maumee, Ohio. And in Canton, Ohio, he tied it to McCain. “If you look at it John McCain’s answers for the economy, and we’re in such desperate shape, is the ultimate bridge to nowhere. It’s nowhere,” Biden said. “It takes you nowhere.” But while the applause line appealed to the Democratic faithful, it could come back to bite the Delaware senator.
This year, Delaware has requested 116 congressional earmarks through Biden, its longtime senator, at a cost to taxpayers of $342 million. In an appearance on CNN’s “American Morning” with anchor John Roberts, Biden said that he had been open about those requests and that they all can be justified. “Everyone has seen them, and we have no Lawrence Welk Museums and have no bridges to nowhere in Delaware. It’s all straight up,” Biden said. Among his requests: $1 million for renovation of an opera house in Wilmington, another million for the construction of a children’s museum and thousands of dollars for a water park renovation in Lewes. “I think opera patrons generally can afford to — you can raise money for an opera house; you can refurbish things a lot of different ways,” Allison said. “To have federal taxpaying dollars — which is coming from people all over the country; low-income, middle-income people, as well as the wealthy — to go to pay for the renovation of something that is really a luxury for Wilmington … There are far more vital projects that anyone could think of that needs money. You got health care. You got education. You got all other types of things. Instead, we are redirecting money to refurbish an opera house in Wilmington or to build a children’s museum.” And Biden’s request includes a bridge that even the head of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce says is not crucial at this juncture. The Indian River Inlet Bridge is a vital link between two popular beachfront towns: Dewey and Bethany. Without it, the estimated 30,000 summer visitors would have to travel an additional 35 minutes to get to the towns. “We need a new bridge, and we are fortunate to be at a place where it is finally going to happen,” said Carol Everhart, the chief of the Chamber of Commerce. The existing bridge has some erosion problems, and if it ever collapsed, Everhart said, it would cause an economic disaster in the community. But it’s safe for now. “The bridge, as it is, is perfectly safe,” she said. Still, Biden asked for $13 million to help shore up the existing bridge and begin construction of a new one. And that’s what troubles the Sunlight Foundation’s Allison.”This bridge is not in any danger of collapse, and essentially what Sen. Biden is doing is saying, ‘My state bridge gets the priority dollar even though it is not a priority project,’ ” Allison said.
He said the Department of Transportation, rather than U.S. senators, should be deciding which bridges get priority funding in the country. That way, the bridges in the U.S. that need immediate repair would be first in line for the dollars needed to do the work. As he embarked on his presidential bid in 2007, Obama said he would no longer ask for earmark projects. McCain, who has been a longtime critic of the process, does not seek any for his home state of Arizona. CNN asked Biden’s campaign whether it could ask the senator about his earmark requests and his votes on the Bridge to Nowhere.
In response, a staffer e-mailed, “You’ve interviewed Gov. Palin re: her completely made up position on the Bridge to Nowhere right?”
Why do these Senators continually mock..when in reality they are the guilty ones!!!
asenath why don’t you go troll somewhere else, say, on the fox news message boards or the john mccain website? you obviously are not converting anyone to your self-righteous cause.
“Why can’t anyone tell me the purpose of this crusade against Sarah Palin?
Whats the purpose..still seems suspicious?”
how is it suspicious? it’s our right to do what we want. this woman is viewed by many people as a heinous bitch who cares nothing about the rights of women. palin has been holding self-proclaimed “ANTI-OBAMA RALLIES” recently. how is that any different than what this was?
i’m so glad you’re voting for mccain in arizona, because i’m sure your state’s 10 electoral votes will DECIDE THE ELECTION.
meanwhile, down here in florida, where obama is leading and the vote actually counts, we would like to extend a warm “kiss my ass” to you so-called democratic women who are voting for john mccain. any woman who is a true democrat is not voting issues either! you want US to analyze the issues? if you call yourself a democrat, how in the WORLD can you vote for someone who is pro-life, anti-abortion in CASES OF RAPE AND INCEST, and wants women to pay for their own criminal rape kits?
please reexamine your own personal beliefs before questioning everyone else’s.
asenath why don’t you go troll somewhere else, say, on the fox news message boards or the john mccain website? you obviously are not converting anyone to your self-righteous cause.
“Why can’t anyone tell me the purpose of this crusade against Sarah Palin?
Whats the purpose..still seems suspicious?”
how is it suspicious? it’s our right to do what we want. this woman is viewed by many people as a heinous bitch who cares nothing about the rights of women. palin has been holding self-proclaimed “ANTI-OBAMA RALLIES” recently. how is that any different than what this was?
i’m so glad you’re voting for mccain in arizona, because i’m sure your state’s 10 electoral votes will DECIDE THE ELECTION.
and to you so-called democratic women who are voting for john mccain, YOU are a woman who is not voting issues either! you want US to analyze the issues? if you call yourself a democrat, how in the WORLD can you vote for someone who is pro-life, anti-abortion in CASES OF RAPE AND INCEST, and wants women to pay for their own criminal rape kits?
please reexamine your own personal beliefs before questioning everyone else’s.