My Thoughts On The Debate

I already know who I'm voting for, but I tried to look at the debate as an undecided voter.

I believe the first three questions about the financial mess were a tie. The rest of the debate, which focused on foreign policy, I think McCain easily won. He had Obama on the defensive the whole night. McCain saved the best for last and had a slam dunk. His comments about his experience, qualifications, and Obama needing on-the-job training really nailed it.

*Watching Fox News contributor Juan Williams take on it, big surprise he thinks Obama took it. I was waiting for Brit Hume to make him his bitch again.

I don't think any debate will have any affect on those who have already picked their candidate. It's geared towards the undecided and those who mildly support either candidate.

Newsbusters has already called out Obama for misrepresenting Kissinger's statement about meeting unfriendly nations.

Henry Kissinger believes Barack Obama misstated his views on diplomacy with US adversaries and is not happy about being mischaracterized. He says: "Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality."

I'm sure there will many more tomorrow. Fact Check doesn't have anything up yet because of technical difficulties.

Dems Aren't Spending Enough Money, Want $56 Billion More

In just the last few days, Congress has passed $25B in "loans" for automakers, they're currently negotiating a $700B corporate welfare bill, and now they want $56B for another "stimulus". The Dems are calling it "an economic recovery package that will help middle-class families struggling in the weakening Bush-McCain economy". The economy didn't start going downhill until the Dems took over congress.

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled their $56 billion economic stimulus package on Thursday, less than an hour before leaving to meet President Bush at the White House to continue the fragile negotiations on the financial rescue bill.

Calling it “an economic recovery package that will help middle-class families struggling in the weakening Bush-McCain economy,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) pitched the plan with the familiar mantra of “not forgetting Main Street.” The plan includes a $7.5 billion down payment on $25 billion in loans for the struggling auto industry.

“Democrats believe that we must urgently pass another economic recovery package that will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying American jobs and prevent cuts in critical services for millions of Americans,” Reid said in a statement. “With the economic news only getting worse each day, I call on the president, Sen. McCain and congressional Republicans to join us to quickly get this done for American families.”

Byrd said the plan compensates for “failing to invest in America … the Bush administration has fiddled while Rome has burned.”

I love it when people give me money. I've been looking to purchase a new DSLR camera. However; now is not the time. I would rather that money go to securing the borders & ports, and to the military so they can kill more jihadi's.

A Reply From The Office Of Sen. Voinovich (Corporate Welfare)

I finally received a reply from Sen. Voinovich. I'm sure it's entirely coincidental that I received this today after several hits from the Senate and House.*cough* *cough*

Anyways...

Thank you for contacting my office.  I genuinely appreciate your e-mail and thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.  As with all communications with my office, your views have been recorded.

Every day, I hear from the people of Ohio through their phone calls, letters and faxes to my office.  As you can imagine, I also receive a significant number of e-mails daily.  Mass-generated e-mails sent by a third-party group, which are usually form text, have hindered my ability to respond to the e-mails, phone calls, letters and faxes that I receive.  Due to the increasing number of mass-generated e-mails received by my office, effective March 16, 2007, my office will be implementing changes to the constituent correspondence process.

Consequently, I have established a new system on my website to better serve Ohio constituents.  If you would like a written response to your e-mail, please go to http://voinovich.senate.gov and click on the CONTACT tab to fill out the web CONTACT FORM.  By filling out this form, you will receive a written response from my office.

Thank you for your patience.  Should you experience any problems with my web CONTACT FORM, please call my office at 202-224-3353 and my staff will be happy to guide you through the electronic correspondence process.

Sincerely,

George V. Voinovich
United States Senator

What he's saying is that he doesn't want any petitions, or organized email campaigns by groups such as ConservativeAlerts.com. If he impedes the ability to easily send emails on important issues, he doesn't have to hear about it.

McCain To Put Country First, Obama Puts Campaigning First

As many of you know by now, McCain has suspended his campaign in order to head to Washington and help deal with the financial mess. It's a tremendous risk for him because even if he is instrumental in any result, who's going to report it? If Obama swoops in, changes one word, he will receive all the praise and adulation from the press.

Obama said a president should be able to do two things at the same time. Any decent president would forego any campaign stops or PR events to handle a REAL situation. But it's quite evident that Sen. Obama couldn't even do one thing at the same time. That one thing is being a senator. This Ain't Hell has good write up about this.

I agree with McCain that both candidates for president should be there negotiating and debating the solution to the financial mess. Of course, Obama doesn't. I suppose he will be the only debater at the debate tomorrow, yet, I will bet anything he still makes a fool of himself. I hope the moderator asks Obama about how much Fmr. Fannie Mae & Lehman Brothers executive Jim Johnson had to do with the financial mess. Jim Johnson was chosen to help Obama pick his VP candidate. You can read about how bad Jim Johnson screwed up by reading this (.PDF, skip to page 168 to read the conclusion)

My hope is that McCain goes to Washington and says, "This is ridiculous, we're not bailing out anybody".

While we're on the subject of the corporate welfare bill, The Jawa Report has a post including prominent Conservative and their thoughts on it.

Does anyone really think that corporate welfare will be limited to $700B? We already have $25B for automakers. Once the government gets a hold of this, it will include more businesses for more reasons. Don't forget, there's not a bill passed that doesn't include pork for special interests.

More On The Corporate Welfare

After sending emails to the president, Sen. Voinovich(R), Sen. Brown(D), and Rep. Latta(R), I got one reply. Yes, 1 reply. I received an auto reply from Sen. Brown and then received a detailed email today. Nothing from Voinovich or Latta...Not even a auto reply.

Here's a notice for Sen. Voinovich and Rep. Latta, I hold deep grudges, so I will be campaigning for your Republican challengers.

Rep. Latta took over the seat that was held by Paul Gillmor, who died last year. Rep. Gillmor always replied by email and I even received a reply in the mail a few times. I knew it would be hard to replace Rep. Gillmor, and Rep. Latta surely is not filling that void.

Anyways; I was going to post the reply from Sen. Brown, but deleted it before I thought about posting it.

For anyone interested in reading the Dept of Treasury proposal you can download it from Sen. Browns website, or click here. It's only 6 pages, which is frightening when we're talking about how $1 trillion is going to be spent.

Did anyone happen to notice that automakers are up for $25B in "loans"? This is in addition to the financial bail out package.

When did this become a Communist state where the government funds businesses?

PETA Wants Ben & Jerry's To Use Breast Milk

I couldn't make this up if I wanted to.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

"PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

"The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn't make sense," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."

In a statement Ben and Jerry's said, "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother's milk is best used for her child."

Passing Gas In Police Station = Battery On A Police Officer

Because it stunk really bad.

As if getting a DUI wasn’t enough, a man arrested for driving under the influence got in a lot more trouble at the police station.

Police stopped Jose Cruz on Route 60 in South Charleston Monday night for driving with his headlights off.

Then, he failed sobriety tests and was arrested.

When police were trying to get fingerprints, police say Cruz moved closer to the officer and passed gas on him. The investigating officer remarked in the criminal complaint that the odor was very strong.

Cruz is now charged with battery on a police officer, as well as DUI and obstruction.

Another Reason Why We Should Not Bail Out Companies

The federal government should not be in the business of bailing out businesses. Especially when those businesses are committing fraud.

The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.

The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.

The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.

Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the past year.

Spokesmen for AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening. A Lehman spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

Just last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller put the number of large financial firms under investigation at 24. He did not name any of the companies under investigation but said the FBI also was looking at whether any of them have misrepresented their assets.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out why these companies were posting profits quarter after quarter, then all of a sudden...boom! they're about to go under. Call it sketchy math, cooking the books, Enron-esque, whatever, but the last thing that should be done is reward them for improper business tactics or incompetent management. Businesses fail everyday, what makes these companies any more important? The answer is...they're not. Sure the economy will take a hit for short period of time, but it always bounces back. It will make businesses not take anything for granted and restructure from top to bottom. U.S. automakers and airlines should be put on notice too.

I've already sent emails to President Bush and my congress-critters telling them to dump this plan. You can do the same easily by going to Conservative Alerts and entering your info.

 

***UPDATE***

Read this newer post about the bailout. Think the bail out is supposed to help Wall St & Main St?

Comerica Bank Still Sucks, But Things Are Looking Good For Former Norwalk Furniture Employees

Yes, Comerica still sucks, and I hope they crash and burn. However; a group of Norwalk investors are in the process of purchasing the former Norwalk Furniture company. 300-350 of the former employees will be called back as early as next week. Unfortunately for those manufacturing facilities outside of Norwalk, they are not included in the purchase.

Norwalk Furniture has a new owner and work is expected to resume this week.

Local investors purchased the property and they are waiting for the paperwork to go through, said Jim McTevia, of McTevia and Associates, Management and Financial Consultants.

"There's not a lot to restructure there," McTevia said, hinting work could begin as early as Tuesday.

Norwalk Furniture Chairman Jim Gerken announced last week the 106-year-old company would not reopen, but that it was looking for somebody to purchase the business and reopen it under a new name.

"Nothing has happened in the two weeks the company has been down," McTevia said.
The Norwalk facility was purchased intact, including the land, buildings, machinery, inventory and work in progress.

"A group of local Norwalk business people were the successful purchaser," McTevia said. "The paperwork is in progress now ... the down payment is in escrow. All of the buyers are from the Norwalk area.

"It looks like Norwalk Furniture will be up and operating. They (the new owners) will be not commenting until the paperwork is completed.

Anti-Obama Shirt Gets 5th Grader Suspended

The 5th grader, according to the school, "...was not suspended for wearing the shirt, but for willful disobedience and defiance". He was told to take the shirt off or turn it inside out. He refused. We all know what would happen if this was a "anti-McCain" or "anti-Bush" shirt...NOTHING.

The family is planning to sue the school district, which they should. The shirt isn't even a false statement. Just look at Obama's good buddy Bill Ayers.

An 11-year-old in Aurora says his first amendment rights are being trampled after he was suspended for wearing a homemade shirt that reads "Obama is a terrorist's best friend."

The fifth grader at Aurora Frontier K-8 School wore it on a day when students were asked to wear red, white and blue to show their patriotism.

The boy's father Dann Dalton describes himself as a "proud conservative" who has taken part in some controversial anti-abortion protests. Dalton says the school made a major mistake by suspending his son for wearing the shirt.