Welfare Capitalism = Patriotism?
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Joe Biden explained the rationale for Americans earning $250,000 or more per year having to pay even more in taxes under the Barack Obama economic plan.
As it stands right now, a married couple filing jointly with a combined salary up to $65,000 per year pays in the 15% tax bracket.
Meanwhile, a married couple filing jointly with a combined salary of $200,000 per year pay in the 33% tax bracket.
So essentially, they second couple already pays 33 cents on each dollar in federal tax, compared with 15 cents for the first couple.
It sort of makes you think they’re trying to discourage us from success, since the IRS asserts such a success penalty.
Anyhow, Barack Obama and Joe Biden don’t think the numbers are imbalanced enough as they are, so they want to slash taxes for the first couple and further increase them for the second one.
Today Biden stated, “It’s time to be patriotic … time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut,” according to the Associated Press.
So, if it is patriotic to have a further redistribution of wealth, also known as welfare capitalism, does Joe Biden think the inverse… paying less taxes for some Americans means they are unpatriotic?
Barack Obama and Thug Politics
Bill Clinton has referred to Barack Obama as “a Chicago thug” for the way he conducts himself in politics, and he did little to dispel this notion at a stop in Las Vegas today.
But Obama doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. He’d prefer to outsource the thug behavior to his supporters.
As Obama spoke to a crowd of about 1,500, he stated, “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
I guess Obama figures if you can’t beat them on the facts, you can try to intimidate them.
Obama vs. McCain in Tech Innovations
There is an interesting, short piece by Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic on the use of technology by both the Barack Obama and John McCain Presidential campaigns.
Ambinder talks about Republicans being ahead of the curve with the use of Google AdWords to drive traffic to the McCain site, as well as using Twitter with projects like http://dontgo.us/.
And then the Democrats are more advanced with social networks and text messaging.
Check it out at http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/scoring_the_tech_innovations.php
By the way, if you’re on Twitter, follow us @obama2
Sarah Palin Email Account Hacked
Hackers broke into Sarah Palin’s email account, according to the Associated Press.
Hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska’s governor, revealing as evidence a few inconsequential personal messages she has received since John McCain selected her as his running mate.
“This is a shocking invasion of the governor’s privacy and a violation of law. The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them,” the McCain campaign said in a statement.
I agree that it’s an invasion of privacy, and I think it’s further deplorable that so many sites are republishing Governor Palin’s personal emails, contact list, photos, etc.
The AP indicated that the Secret Service requested copies of the leaked emails. The AP did not comply, but it’s not really necessary - I just found copies of them in multiple sites easily.
The account has been deleted, but gawker.com seems to think displaying private information on their site is somehow newsworthy, based on their post…
“Here are the screenshots of the emails saved before the account went dark, along with the contact list. It’s newsworthy and we will not be taking it down!”
They have some twisted definition of newsworthy to post this private information. Lame.
Barack Obama is Confused About AIG
Barack Obama sure knows a lot about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (or at least the people signing the checks there), but he needs to study up on AIG (American International Group), based on his comment today…
“The fact that we have reached a point where the Federal Reserve felt it had to take this unprecedented step with the American Insurance Group is the final verdict on the failed economic philosophy of the last eight years.”
- Barack Obama, September 17, 2008
This sort of slip-up doesn’t instill much confidence in his economic acuity.
Barack Obama #2 Recipient of Campaign Cash from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
The collapse this week of Lehman Brothers’ is traced back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two big mortgage banks that got a federal bailout a few weeks ago.
It turns out that the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae used huge lobbying budgets and political contributions to keep regulators off their backs, and the #2 recipient of these funds was Barack Obama, according to Center for Responsive Politics.
It’s jaw-dropping that Obama has collected such a sum in his short four years in office, as this tally covers all of contributions to politicians over the past 20 years.
And if you forgot (it’s understandable - the mainstream media apparently forgot), one of the initial members of Obama’s team searching for a running mate for him was former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson.
Additionally, there is a post at the Wizbang Blog, “Obama One of Leading Recipients of Fannie/Freddie Political Contributions,” with a transcript from a segment on Fox News yesterday that provides further details into the role of Democrats in this financial mess.
Now remember, Obama’s ads and stump speeches attack McCain and Republican policies for the current financial turmoil.
It is demonstrably not Republican policy and worse, it appears the man attacking McCain, Senator Obama, was at the head of the line when the piggy’s lined up at the Fannie and Freddie trough for campaign bucks.
Senator Barack Obama, number two on the Fannie/Freddie list of favored politicians after just four short years in the senate. Next time you see that ad, you might notice he fails to mention that part of the Fannie and Freddie problem.
But still we see Obama on the stump as he tries to lay the blame of this mess on the Republicans. I’ve got to wonder - is Obama that duplicitous, or is he really that unaware of how it all happened?
Abortion Survivor Gianna Jessen Pleads With Barack Obama
There is an impactful new ad running from BornAliveTruth.org featuring abortion survivor Gianna Jessen as she pleads with Barack Obama to support born alive infant protections.
The commercial refers to votes from Senator Obama on the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act. See details on the issue at FactCheck.org.
It’s Morning Again in America
In the midst of a banking crisis and Wall Street meltdown, it is crucial to bring the United States back to our land of pride and promise.
This reminds me of the famous Ronald Reagan commercials from 1984 with the opening line “It’s morning again in America.”
We are now in a moment where we need optimism and reform, rather than the blame games and attack ads that are flowing from the Barack Obama campaign.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition if you look at John McCain’s comments compared with those of Barack Obama yesterday.
“There has been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street. People are frightened by these events. Our economy I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times. I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street.” - John McCain, 9/15/08
Obama was quick to issue an attack ad (what’s new?) about how he thinks John McCain is out of touch. But what are the fundamentals of our economy?
According to Stuart Varney of the Fox Business Network, the fundamentals of the economy are the basics: unemployment, job creation, and inflation.
Since we don’t exist in a bubble, it’s important to look at these items in the prism of the global economy.
Currently, unemployment is at 6.1%, which is a 5 year high, but much better than our European competitors.
We’ve lost about a half million or more new jobs this year, which is a negative, but again it is much better than our European and Japanese competitors.
And inflation is currently at 5.4%, which can be attributed largely to the cost of energy. As we diversify our energy plan and rely less on foreign energy, the rate will retreat.
Yes, the economy is struggling, and it’s not easy to be optimistic when we see gas prices as high as they are, and housing in a tailspin.
But we need to positive vision and plan to fix the mess. That’s what will fix the economy, not more attack ads that offer venom without solutions.
John McCain is talking about cleaning up Wall Street, and expanding our domestic energy programs.
Obama is reading from his TelePrompter that McCain is “out of touch.”
Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic offers an assessment of the state of the financial system in our country.
Obama’s Totalitarian Paradise
Barack Obama generally likes the First Amendment, except when he is not happy with what people are saying about him.
Just a few weeks ago, Barack Obama was trying to intimidate TV stations from running a commercial about his relationship with terrorist William Ayers.
And now the Obama campaign is trying to dictate which guests are on the WGN Radio station, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago radio station WGN-AM is again coming under attack from the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama for offering airtime to a controversial author.
It is the second time in recent weeks the station has been the target of an “Obama Action Wire” alert to supporters of the Illinois Democrat.
Monday night’s target was David Freddoso, who the campaign said was scheduled to be on the station from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Chicago time.
This pattern of attempting to censor should be profoundly disturbing to anybody who values free speech.
TelePrompter for President
Barack Obama has been referred to as an empty suit, but it seems he is more than that… an empty suit with a TelePrompter, according to CNN.
In addition to relying on his trusty TelePrompter to relay all of his thoughts and plans while delivering his speeches, he is also now using the device at rallies and town hall meetings.
But I thought he was the best speaker ever and the genius of a generation… if so, why does he always need a crutch?