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A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Scott Davis

The first Bush created 49 thousand jobs a month, Clinton 240, this Bush 51 thousand, even with the population growth we've had. Clinton raised taxes on the wealth at the start of his term. The Republicans at that time said it would create a Depression. Instead, we had the longest peacetime expansion since WWII.

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

Technorati Tags: Reader Contribution

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by George Gerber
 
The Vice Presidential debate has now come and gone. The newscasters, journalists, and pundits will take over and debate this historic television moment for a long time. They will each declare winners and losers but, in fact, there were no losers and only one winner: the American people.
 
Governor Palin acquitted herself well when compared to her interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. There were some shaky moments but she seemed more comfortable and more relaxed than she did in either of the other venues. Unfortunately, her responses were still robotic and memorized. There was little substance and few facts to support her talking points and, when she was unable to answer a question, she simply changed the topic to energy. Because of the format limitations, she often went unchallenged performing that slight of hand. The bar was set low and, in that sense, she cleared the hurdle. But lowering the bar to accommodate the competitor should be unacceptable to all Americans. By the end of the debate, she seemed no more capable of assuming the presidency than she did at the beginning. Smoke and mirrors can never reflect a person's true nature. They only obscure the truth.
 

Technorati Tags: Reader Contribution

Final Debate Thought

Oh, gosh, gee, ya know Sarah Palin was just
So darn spunky and so full of beans
But it did seem like her Achilles heel was not
Knowing what "Achilles heel" means

Repeatedly Droppin' Her G's, Palin Shamelessly Played The Folksy Card

Her goal was tryin' to avert catastrophe
By her repeated use of the apostrophe.

Technorati Tags: Tony Peyser

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG

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Subject: Palin's Thirst for Power

Technorati Tags: BuzzFlash Mailbag Palin Biden Bush Cheney McCain Brokaw Putin Subprime The New Yorker McKinney Uptick Rule Wall Street

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Peter Michaelson

There's a very simple way to get even with those rich and filthy Raiders of the Lost Treasury. (Yes, "lost" is an accurate word to describe a Treasury in an $11-trillion free fall.)

How do you get even? Here are a few thoughts on how that can happen. (Since being rich in itself is okay -- i.e., Paul Newman -- I'll refer to the treasury raiders as the filthy rich.)

Without even being aware of it, a whole lot of us concede to the filthy rich the notion that they are somehow superior to the rest of us. We do that especially when standing in their presence. "Look at how successful they are!" we mutter to ourselves, as we regret all the ways it failed to happen for us. Never mind that their love of money has made their success a triumph of bad manners.

In self-deception, some of us might say to ourselves, "Hey, I'm as good as anybody!" But, emotionally, it's a whole different story. We let the rich bushwhack and bamboozle us. Why is that?

Technorati Tags: Guest Contribution Peter Michaelson depression Bush economy filthy rich financial bailout

"Governor, I watched the debate with Dan Quayle. I saw Dan Quayle. Dan Quayle was a vice president of mine. Governor, you're no Dan Quayle."

Congratulations, Sarah Palin. You surpassed James Stockdale last night, but you didn't make it up to the standard of Dan Quayle.

Clueless pit bull described Dan Quayle. Experienced, but dim-witted. He could articulate the talking points on a wide variety of topics, the clear indicator that Palin hadn't surpassed Quayle.

Palin didn't break down as some might have predicted. But her talking points only stuck to a few topics, and when she had a question that didn't compute, she went back to the tried and true of "energy independence."
Technorati Tags: Be-Elected

BE ELECTED
by Meg White

Amid the folksy "doggone its," "you betchas," and "darn rights" that Gov. Sarah Palin dished out at the debate last night, she dropped a bombshell that was largely missed: She sees herself as the new Dick Cheney.

The conventional wisdom about vice presidential debates is that they don't really matter. We're voting for president in November, not VP. And in every election I can think of, that's been the case.

But to use a recent favorite in campaign lingo, Vice President Dick Cheney is a game-changer. Over the past eight years, Cheney has amassed more power than any other vice president in history.

Technorati Tags: Be-Elected palin governor biden cheney vice president unitary executive power dangerous

Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin tried to claim Thursday evening that their presidential-candidate running mates, Barack Obama and John McCain had been prescient about spotting the looming financial disaster facing the U.S. -- Biden saying Obama had warned Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke several years ago that subprime mortgages would become a serious problem, and Palin saying McCain had called for reform of mortgage backing firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (he actually simply co-sponsored reform legislation by Sen. Chuck Hagel).

But there is someone who called this crisis much earlier, explaining it in astonishing clarity. Here's what he wrote: Technorati Tags: Dave Lindorff

UPDATE: At least one person agrees with me that Michigan should get more attention. But who knew that person was Sarah Palin? The Alaska governor sent an e-mail to the McCain campaign that "Todd and I would [be] happy to get to Michigan and walk through those plants [with] car manufacturers." Gov. Palin found out about the Michigan strategy from a reporter, not from the campaign.

Is Michigan a good bellwether state? Not counting the uncertainty of the last two elections (MI went for Gore and Kerry), the last time the state voted against the presidential winner was 1976 when favorite son Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter. Before that, 1968 was when Michigan went from Vice President Hubert Humphrey instead of Richard Nixon.

And John McCain, already in a tough fight, has given up on Michigan. Pulled staff, pulled ads - the whole ball of wax.

McCain's troubles started in Michigan when he noted in the primaries that "some of the jobs that have left the state of Michigan are not coming back." In 2000, McCain won the Michigan primary, even though he was already pretty much out of the race. In 2008, Mitt Romney, whose father was Michigan's governor, won the primary.

Not that McCain didn't try in Michigan. His campaign ran a deceptive ad, blaming Barack Obama for the loss of jobs in Michigan.

Technorati Tags: Be-Elected

The grassroots rebellion that led to the House's rejection of the Bush Administration's Wall Street bailout bill on Monday flamed out on Friday, overwhelmed by a massive lobbying campaign by Wall Street and by a propaganda push in the corporate media in favor of passage.

The House, which had voted 228-205 against a bailout at the beginning of the week, voted 283-171 in favor of an even more expensive plan only four days later, after the Senate passed a bill containing over $100 billion in tax breaks (mostly for the wealthy), and after House leaders added a bunch of those infamous "earmarks" to buy the votes of reluctant House members.

Interestingly, one of the things that was used to frighten members of Congress into passing this unprecedented bill was a plunging stock market, which plunged into record low territory for the year on Monday and Thursday. Yet after rising modestly during the morning, reportedly on "anticipation" that Congress would pass a bailout, once the vote was in, the equities markets all started heading south. Clearly investors weren't particularly optimistic that throwing almost $1 trillion in borrowed money from taxpayers at banks and investment houses would do much for the nation's struggling "real" economy.
Technorati Tags: Dave Lindorff

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

An interesting analysis of a "contrived hero" and a difference in what we've been led to believe! "It seems apparent John McCain is not a hero and should be viewed as lacking sufficient character to hold the office of the Presidency or the Senate."

Technorati Tags: Barbara's Daily Buzz