Viagra Winning Afghanistan War

Believe it or not, the way to a mans heart has been surpassed with great food for his stomach. Go a few more inches south on the human male anatomy and add a magic little blue pill. Apparently, the logic goes that if you make an Afghan Chieftain happy in one of his many bedrooms, then you get more information than you can handle. Finally, America has a comparative drug to the poppy fields of Afghanistan but ours is legal all around the world and makes older men very, very, very happy.

Check out what the CIA has been doing in Afghanistan according to the Washington Post…

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 26, 2008; Page A01

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.
The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations. - Washington Post

So we have heroine addicts from poppy fields in Afghanistan and now we are finally exporting Viagra back to the people growing the crops that poison and kill our people. This isn’t a fair exchange when you really think about it. One drug is addictive to the point of death and the other just puts a smile on two peoples faces.

I’m thinking that in the next few years there is going to be a baby boom in Afghanistan because of the magic little blue pill courtesy of the CIA drug lords. By all accounts are we or are we not growing future terrorists by default? This RAISES more than one issue. While the CIA is passing out happy little blue pills it is also INCREASING the chances for misinformation. Addicts to the little blue pill will say and do anything for a fix. Eventually, their wives will say and do anything for a day or weeks supply of little blue pills.

Then again, if the older daddy’s in Afghanistan are always smiling and happy then maybe the kids will not grow up in a world full of negatives where they have to join organizations like the Taliban. Screw it, pass out the little blue pills all over the country, carpet bomb them with the little suckers. Gives a whole new meaning to the sixties call to arms of “Make Love Not War” doesn’t it?

All I have to say about this issue is that Afghanistan will look kindly on America as long as the supply keeps up with demand. I think America has finally stumbled on the ultimate weapon of war. I can actually picture super tanker bomber airplanes being built to seed problem areas of the world with pretty little blue pills. I also wonder if the next mega export to Afghanistan will be hearing aids for the men after years of abusing this drug? Hearing loss verse happy potential terrorist men is a give and take though. Then again, this could be good for the economy here at home with the CIA buying Viagra by the ton?

My thanks to Memeorandum for the tip…

Papamoka

Washington Post Biased for Obama

Don’t be too shocked but the Washington Post, one of the nations premier go to news organizations, might have been slightly biased for Barack Obama in this past election. According to their own Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, she researched the articles printed and the paper favored Obama more than McCain.

If that is what the Ombudsman or should it be Ombudswoman says then it must be true. I’ll get into it later why I think she is wrong but here is the piece over at the Washington Post…

An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage
By Deborah Howell
Sunday, November 9, 2008; Page B06

The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.

My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 of last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates' backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4.

The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts' views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues. - Washington Post

Can I disagree with this so called Ombudswoman and just say that she obviously did not follow the damn election. Did she not see that John McCain ran his campaign based on the news cycle but managed to trip over his own two feet as negative spin after negative spin ended up as egg on his face. Apparently Deborah Howell, no relation to Thurston Howell III by the way, did not happen to see the Reverend Wright attack from McCain that was uniquely timed with the endorsement of Reverend John Hagee? For the record here, Wright did the “God damn America” speech and Hagee called all Catholics whores. I think that covers religion.

John McCain attacked Obama on his experience or lack there of and then picked Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice President who had no clue as to the den of fire breathing politics she was being drawn into. Of course the press did not have any new news on Joe Biden who has lived an open book life for more almost three decades. Ergo the press covered Sarah Palin. And if I were the editor of the post then I would already know what was already on file for Joe Biden and also know that nothing was on file for Governor Palin. Where would you send your world class reporting staff?

When the financial crash finally surfaced John McCain dove into the pool without seeing if there was even water in it. The same John McCain who suspended his campaign to work with both sides of the aisle in the Senate to pass the bailout plan that never met with even one Democrat. Is it Barack Obama’s problem that McCain inserted his own foot in his own mouth and all of the media reported on it including the Washington Post how his own party voted against the first bailout plan?

Is it a real story when John McCain had to defer to a staffer on how many houses he owns when Obama could answer the question by just saying “One.” For the record again, McCain has seven plus homes and a couple of condo’s but that wasn’t worth reporting on according to the WA PO Ombudswoman.

This article from Deborah Howell is a far reach to embrace the right side of the political perspective of the papers readership. That does not bother me as much as it shows that inside the Washington Post they can not see what great reporting on the issues actually were and still is. If the Post appeared that it was biased then it was because they were pointing out the never ending mistakes from the McCain for President campaign during the election. Something that has happened every single week since the nominating conventions. This was a political election and every great news organization tries its best to be unbiased in its reporting and yet you could not criticize the paper for reporting on the train wreck this was as an election for Republicans. No matter how many times they put the McCain train back on the tracks it kept derailing itself and that in itself is news to report on.

I’ll keep reading the Washington Post daily because I have trust in the facts reported no matter which side of politics it covers. Now if you want to talk about other news reporting houses that are extremely biased let me tell you about…

Papamoka

AIG Bailout Smack in the Face

It took less than a week for the bailout plan to slap Joe Taxpayer (formerly Joe Sixpack before AA) in the face. I think we all knew that you can not hand a blank check to an industry that prides itself on million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes that would make royalty blush.

Over at AIG they went and threw a party for their top performers after they drew off almost $61 Billion from the government bailout of AIG. Somehow the executives over at AIG thought it was wise to blow almost $500,000 for a party on the U.S. Taxpayers dime just one week ago! Over at the Washington Post they have this on the topic…

AIG Gets More Government Bailout Cash

Only one day after it was revealed that AIG had sprung for a $440,000 spa vacation shortly after getting an $84 billion government-loan bailout comes this report: The government is loaning AIG another $38 billion.

AIG, the world's largest insurer, said it has already drawn down $61 billion on its $84 billion line of credit from the government. AIG's financial products division got into the mortgage-backed securities market and incurred billions in losses, sending the entire company teetering toward bankruptcy. The $84 billion loan was meant to help prop up AIG.

During a hearing before the House Oversight committee on Tuesday, it was revealed that just last week, about 70 of the company's top performers were rewarded with a week-long stay at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., where they ran up a tab of $440,000, The Post's Peter Whoriskey reported today.

Snip n Hold on to your wallet…

Today, AIG chief executive Edward Liddy defended the vacation by pouring gasoline on the fire.

Such trips "are standard practice in our industry," Liddy said, no doubt thrilling every other major insurance company. - Washington Post

You would think that the Treasury Department or even the office of the Attorney General would be pouncing on this abuse but they probably won’t. Big boys will be big boys! Nope, now the treasury is going to need to loan AIG another $38 Billion so they can pay the bar tab for these top performers in the company that would have gone belly up?

President Bush should be ripped! No, that would be out of character for him when this sort of blatant abuse happens. I’m sure somebody at the White House is pissed and I’m laying bets on the woman that answers the mail for the under secretary of we don’t give a damn department.

Papamoka

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McCain Snubs Alaska

While the McCain for President is throwing up it’s own version of George Bush politics and smoke and mirrors, over at the Obama campaign they are actually talking to people where most think one vote does not count. 3 Electoral votes do not matter in the big picture. Or do they? All the folks up in Alaska are American citizens and the only political campaign talking to them is the Obama campaign for President. A campaign based on an entire America inclusive in the future of our nation. Even in the great state of Alaska. Isn't this election based on ALL Ameican's having an opinion on who will be President? McCain obviously does not think Alaskan's are important enough to campaign for their vote.

While Senator McCain has been building his campaign on what President Bush is all about, been all about, and morphed into a junior Bush, Obama and his campaign is talking to the people of Alaska! Alaska, way the hell up north, you can not get to all of the people other than by plane but the Obama people are making the effort to talk to the actual people that vote. Kudos go out to the Obama people that includes ALL Americans in the decision process for our President! If you think Obama is just about Obama then ask an Alaskan who is actually seeing campaigning in their state for President? Obama and his message is about change and that includes all American’s! Over at the Washington Post they have this little piece on Alaska’s voting record and who is actually their campaigning for the election and the Maverick McCain is absent state wide…

Alaskans for Obama: A Rare Democratic Push in the Last Frontier

By Karl VickWashington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; Page A04

ANCHORAGE -- In what might be the fullest realization of Barack Obama's pledge to run hard in parts of the country largely untouched by presidential campaigning, the Democrat's Alaska operation is making plans for organizers to hopscotch the state's vast and sparsely populated interior by bush plane, knocking on doors in remote outposts for their candidate.

"Go around, put up signs, shake some hands, see some of the important people in the village," said state representative and professional pilot Woodie Salmon (D), describing his own campaign tactics in a legislative district that includes 94 villages, 70 of which can be reached only by air. "Get things stirred up and leave again."

Conservative and quirky, Alaska last went for a Democratic presidential candidate 44 years ago. No nominee from either party has even visited since Richard Nixon's journey to glad-hand in Anchorage on the last weekend of the 1960 campaign, a stop that some argue cost him the razor-thin election.

Snip and tuck important facts…

While the John McCain campaign has yet to open an office anywhere in the state, Obama has dispatched dozens of paid staffers here over the past month; the latest batch arrived over the weekend. It is assigning field coordinators in each of the state's 40 legislative districts and has been buying television ad time since June.

"The campaign is treating Alaska as a key battleground state," said Jeff Giertz, the campaign's communications director in Alaska, who arrived in Anchorage from Iowa, the scene of Obama's first victory of the Democratic nominating contest. - Washington Post

John McCain is not in Alaska because they only have three Electoral College votes! Something he is counting on as a given in the pocket win. History is on his side but times change and so do generations of people. McCain is wrong in counting Alaska as a given when the majority of citizens have no access to health care or even dream of health insurance. I can’t speak for the people of Alaska but if the people running for the office of President don’t even open up even one political office in your entire state, then don’t you think they don’t care about you as a person, a voter, an American?

Follow the money and you see who the real candidate for President in the Republican Party is. Alaska does not matter, isn’t even worth a dollar in campaign dollars raised. Follow the money from the Obama campaign and you see that he is about inclusion of all American voters. Even if you have to take a plane to reach a village in the land that is the last true frontier.

How do you think you would feel as a voter if John McCain and his campaign for President looked at your state of Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia, Montana, North and South Dakota in the same red state perspective and snubbed your state like he is doing so with Alaska? McCain is playing the numbers of Bush and his election, he has forgotten what and who he was, lost his way and is just winging it in the states he thinks are worth the gamble for his campaign dollars. Other than three electoral votes, Obama sees change that is possible and that change includes the great state of Alaska. After all they are American's too!

Every Alaskan has a vote, why is John McCain not catering to Alaskan voters? The answer to that is just three electoral votes.

Papamoka

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McCain Republican’s Going Racist!

When you have a broken household appliance, you call on someone to fix it. You call Sears if you have a warranty to get it fixed as soon as possible. You get an appointment where nine times out of ten you have to take time off from work. All you know is that if the appliance is not working then your household is screwed. When that person walks in the door of your home do you really care what color their skin is if they can fix your broken appliance? Being President of this nation is not about the color of your skin but getting the damn job done, done right, and your being able to be proud in your government appliance once more.

Our government is an appliance that touches each and every single one of our lives at one point or another during our life cycle. Be it Social Security when you retire or the Veterans Administration from injuries you received in service to America, at some point you will be on the phone with your Federal Government in your lifetime. Right now as I type this post, the only response coming from our government appliance is please hold.

What I find ironic about the election process between John McCain and Barack Obama is the rude accusation coming from the McCain campaign that Obama is playing the race card. Over at the Washington Post they have this little update of interest…

“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,” Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, charged in a statement with which Mr. McCain later said he agreed. “It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

In leveling the charge, Mr. Davis was referring to comments that Mr. Obama made Wednesday in Missouri when he reacted to the increasingly negative tone and negative advertisements from the McCain campaign, including one that likens Mr. Obama’s celebrity status to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

“So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Mr. Obama said in Springfield, Mo., echoing earlier remarks. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.”

With his rejoinder about playing “the race card,” Mr. Davis effectively assured that race would once again become an unavoidable issue as voters face an election in which, for the first time, one of the major parties’ nominees is African-American.

And with its criticism, the McCain campaign was ensuring that Mr. Obama’s race — he is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas — would again be a factor in coverage of the presidential race. On Thursday, it took the spotlight from Mr. Obama when he had sought to attack Mr. McCain on energy issues. - New York Times

Race card played and by none other than the campaign to elect John McCain for President. Well that is a really scary thought when it comes to Presidential elections! Is the distinguished Senator from Arizona going to outright declare that Americans should not vote for an African American? Is he or is he not declaring that Senator Obama is in fact a black man even though his mother is a white woman to corner the racist vote? Do you notice that none of this has to do with the issues we face in America other than the color of one persons skin?

Do yourself a favor and put a blindfold on, listen to John McCain on energy policies (his latest flip anyway), and then listen to Barack Obama (Consistent Policy) on his energy policies and you decide who has a real clue as to what America really needs?

If the McCain campaign wants to play the race card then that is their folly. If they want to discuss real issues then I’m sure Senator Obama would be willing to debate him/his aides/his campaign manager/the janitor or whoever is really running the McCain for President campaign.

All I have to offer you in this post is a better day, a better life, a chance for change when the darkness of our people living as best they can and seeing the opportunities for them to succeed in life surpassing them every day that staying the course promises. John McCain is not promising that, not even hinting at it but we the people can say “Yes We Can”.

Hope is alive in America and Racism should pass the way that time has given us to grow past it. (Video Link)



In the course of our lives we all must look to the future, our children, and hope that their lives will be just one step better than ours. Racism has no place in our melting pot society and “Yes We Can” change America. While Senator McCain goes off playing the race card, my children’s future depends on policies that will change the path of America for the better. In that thought, believing that we as a people can make it better is the message of hope and only one candidate is selling hope. Thank you Senator Obama for doing so.

Papamoka

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Did Reverend Wright Derail Obama?

One thing that everyone can recognize is an idiot with an open microphone. In the past several days Reverend Wright has done his best to pretty much kill the chances of an African American like Barack Obama ever becoming the Democrat nominee for President. What the good reverend has done is isolate in fear what every African American is and that does not bode well for a political candidate running on a platform for one American people no longer divided, no longer separated but united as one for one single purpose. Rebuilding a broken America.

Barack Obama declared his total separation from Reverend Jeremiah Wright today, now retired from the pulpit at Trinity Church because of his outrageous statements picked up all over the main stream media. Over at the Washington Post they have this on the event…

By Peter Slevin
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Sen. Barack Obama today strongly criticized the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, saying that Wright's comments about the United States in recent days have been "destructive" and "outrageous."

Using his sharpest language yet to describe a series of Wright performances that he said left him angry and sad, Obama accused Wright of exploiting racial divisions at the same time the Illinois senator is aiming to bring the nation together.

"When I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it," Obama told reporters in firm and somber tones. "It contradicts everything that I'm about and who I am. And anybody who has worked with me, who knows my life, who has read my books, who has seen what this campaign is about I think will understand that it is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country."

SNIP

"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That's in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding," Obama said. "To insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That's who I am. That's what I believe. That's what this campaign has been about."

"Yesterday, we saw a very different vision of America," Obama went on. "I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened over the spectacle that we saw yesterday."
- Washington Post

Reverend Wright in his mission to make life better for his congregation has grandstanded and used his bully pulpit for his own personal grandeur. In doing so he has drawn the line in the sand that white Americans and black Americans can never be united as one people. For the first time in his own life his pulpit reached beyond Trinity Church and across America simply because he has a black mans opinion and was the pastor of a Presidential candidate. He saw the limelight on Barack Obama and rather than let the new hope for our nation shine he turned the light on himself and the mistakes and ignorance of the past.

It will not be easy for the Obama campaign to overcome the Wright controversy. Even with his announcement today to separate himself from the Reverend, it still sticks in some circles. It raises the question of whether Obama can or will be able to coast through the rest of the election process and simply win because the numbers seemed to look that way. Did Reverend Wright put the nail in the coffin of the Obama campaign?

No matter what thought process or political theory you follow the only winner in the whole mess that Jeremiah Wright instigated is Senator John McCain. Hillary Clinton can not capitalize on this issue because it is a personal matter between a pastor and one man in his congregation. Paint it any single way you want and it just does not spin well as a political weapon against Obama as a Democrat opponent in the rest of the election process.

All of this post leads to beg the question if African Americans would ever forgive Reverend Wright for handing the nomination process to Hillary Clinton simply because he was so angry to be an African American that was wronged over and over in his own life? Then again, Obama and his campaign isn’t about the past, it’s about the future and that is very different than what Reverend Wright could ever have experienced.

Papamoka

Interesting reads on this topic: Pissed on Politics

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McCain, Not the Compassionate Conservative

Many Americans fell for the BS story that current President Bush spread around that he was a compassionate conservative politician and now we all know what one is not. As the unmitigated candidate from the Republican Party, Senator McCain is giving lip service to the little people we all call the middle and lower class. After repeated criticism for lack of any plan on the housing crisis and that he has a plan. Or is it just more lip service from a want to be Presidential candidate?

Conservative principals are less government intervention in individual rights and less government and taxes overall. Is the distinguished Senator from Arizona playing politics with his plan to help but not help homeowners facing the loss of their homes? Over at the Washington Post and On the Trail they have this to say on his latest speech…

McCain Refines Plan for Homeowners
By Dan Balz

BROOKLYN -- Two weeks after drawing criticism for saying he favored only a limited federal role to help deal with the home mortgage crisis, Republican presidential candidate John McCain sought to assure Americans he is prepared to use the government where necessary to help ease the impact of a declining economy on working families.

In a campaign appearance with small business owners in Brooklyn, McCain also addressed the spreading economic downturn with proposals to help families facing foreclosure restructure their mortgages and to give workers who have lost their jobs more flexibility and incentives to seek retraining and a speedier return to the workforce.

McCain plans a more comprehensive economic speech for next week, but came here today to blunt criticism from Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that he is insensitive to the plight of ordinary Americans.

"Let me make it clear that that in these challenging times, I am committed to using all the resources of this government and great nation to create opportunity and make sure that every deserving American has a good job and can achieve their American dream," he said.

~SNIP~

Instead, McCain proposed a federal program that would require individual homeowners to seek help from the federal government and, if they qualified for assistance, emerge with a restructured mortgage that would allow them to stay in their homes.

"There is nothing more important than keeping alive the American dream to own your home, and priority number one is to keep well meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in their homes," he said. - Washington Post, The Trail

Senator McCain’s plan is more government? Is that even remotely Conservative or Republican? Then you have to love the part of “deserving homeowners”. What’s the classification or status as to what American deserves to keep their home Senator? Is there a nobody making under X amount of dollars gets a McCain thumbs down? Same article, same link…

There are some limitations. Those families who can afford the terms of their current, albeit higher, mortgage would not qualify. And the assistance would only cover primary residences and only go to families that can truly afford the new mortgage.

McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the housing assistance would reach an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 families, with an estimated cost of $3 billion to $10 billion. He said McCain's goal is to use federal money only for those families "who really need help." He also called McCain's approach superior to some Democratic measures because it places primary emphasis on the individuals in need, rather than the lenders.

Hello to the Senator! If they could afford the mortgage payments they were lassoed into they would not be in foreclosure? That is the first clue to the big picture that John McCain and his political staff have no clue as to what is really going on down in your neighborhood.

One of the only things in his speech that made sense was demanding a Justice Department investigation. Shouldn’t he be doing that from his Senate office where it would actually be a formal request? Something that someone that in our government that cares about all Americans should have done a year or more ago? Politics is a learning curve for the McCain camp and they are pretty much amateurs. He’s still on the same page as Bush.

You get what you pay for Mr. McCain. Or in the case of homeowners facing foreclosure you get screwed. Same thing, different geography.

Papamoka

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McCain on the Economy

When it comes to the economy we can pretty much give Senator John McCain an F for Forgetaboutit! (New York City Accent)

McCain’s idea about dealing with the current troubles and economic collapse is to leave all options on the table? That’s a great sound bite but means absolutely nothing. It’s tantamount to telling a dead man in a car crash directions to the hospital.

Do I believe that John McCain is serious about rescuing our nation from the current economic downturn? No, I don’t! Apparently, his idea of fixing the housing crisis caused by “Irresponsible American’s” is to wait for the dust to settle. Umm, that pretty much means he is giving a green light to disreputable lending practices because people are stupid. Those people are American’s betrayed by our own banking industry. Over at the Washington Post they have this to say on his brilliant idea to fix the housing crisis…

McCain told reporters he would oppose any big government bailouts, saying they had not worked in the past and would not work in the future. But he expressed support for the Senate's economic stimulus package.

"We have got to restore confidence on the part of the American consumer to invest, to save, to do the things that make our economy run," the Arizona Republican said.

"We have got to find the floor on the cost of houses. When we find the floor, then there will be people who will come in and purchase some of these at bargain rates," he said.
A sharp downturn in the U.S. housing market has led to a full-blown credit crisis that has reverberated throughout the U.S. financial system.

Still, McCain said he was confident about America's economic future. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," he insisted.

Some Democrats have criticized McCain for advocating a less interventionist approach to the housing and financial crises than either Clinton or Obama. McCain said in a speech on the economy last month it is "not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers." - Washington Post

When we find the floor? That is McCain’s answer to the housing crisis? When you are loosing your house you can’t take the floor with you. If you are a neighbor to a homeowner that lost their home in foreclosure it reflects on your own homes value. Vacant houses owned by banks waiting for a buyer that might pay for a bargain go empty for months and in some cases years when the evicted family takes the pipes and destroys the home rather than give the bank a move in condition home. Maybe McCain is right and you can wait for the floor? You’ll find the floor boards over at the surplus construction scrap outlet.

Is his plan to save the economy restoring the Hoovervilles of years gone by? Maybe his plan is to let the banks police themselves and fix the problems in their own back yard? Maybe his plan is to offer the banks mega tax cuts to repay all the favors he owes them? It’s not like he doesn’t know that end of the political spectrum given his Savings and Loan history.

McCain with every passing day in this election is coming off as a man that will wing it as President. Unfortunately, the Senator is gravely mistaken when it comes to the economy. It would help when he claims to have more economic background than Senator Clinton or Senator Obama if he actually had a workable plan to temporarily sure up the economy. Maybe his wing man has it?

McCain’s actions and thoughts on the economy are always limited to his own experience and with that thought in mind he sounds more and more like George W. Bush every single day.

No more W!

Papamoka

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Obama on Racial Tension in America

Maybe I’m just an idiot that just does not or will not ever understand how anyone can be a racist in America. We as a people have come from all shores in our immigration based nation and yet in every couple of generations going all the way back to the first Pilgrims we have always had racism in America? Why? America is the land of opportunity for all so why does hate of a persons heritage exist? Why do people look at the color of a persons skin and stereotype them as the bad guys regardless of never actually getting to know them.

This nation was founded for one nationality and that is that we all are Americans. You can be an Irish American, a Polish American, an English American and an African American and one thing you have in common is that you are all Americans! Your neighbor, your coworkers, your fellow church members, and your elected leaders are all from diverse backgrounds that have made this nation great not because they cherish their personal heritage but because they believe in an America for all.

If you were running for President, would you be liable for what a friend says that for the most part in fact is true but is a divisive topic? Barack Obama is fighting that ownership and I have to agree with the Senator. We are a melting pot society and sometimes the hate surfaces to the top of the pot and spills over. Over at the Washington Post they have this on Obama and the Reverend Wright issue…

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 18, 2008; 2:15 PM

In what his campaign billed as a major speech in Philadelphia, Obama tried to come to grips with the issue of race in his run for the presidency and to reinforce his primary theme that he can help bring fundamental change to the nation. His remarks were aimed at repairing the damage his campaign has suffered from his association with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. and addressing what he called a "particularly divisive turn" in recent weeks as videos of the fiery pastor's sermons have circulated.

Saying that America remains stuck in "a racial stalemate," the Illinois senator said he was not naive enough to believe that the divisions could be overcome in a single election. But he said Americans working together "can move beyond some of our old racial wounds."
He described his own heritage as a biracial American married to a black woman "who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners."

"I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible," Obama declared.

Jumping Ahead…

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community," Obama told supporters at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother -- a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe." - Washington Post

If you want to call Reverend Wright a racist then by all means do so. That title comes to the Reverend with years of experience of living as a black man in a white mans world in the cheap seats of his local community. While he works to make a better world for his fellow man he has seen the injustices of the world against his fellow man and they are his flock. If I were in his shoes I would be screaming at the rafters in disgust and his pointing this fact of life out is and should be the news. America needs to change its overall look on who Americans are and face the fact that people of color, African, Mexican, Peruvian, Cuban or any other color than white are Americans too!

I for one am a firm believer that you never forget where you came from and Senator Obama’s refusal to send his friend Reverend Wright to the dogs is admirable. Most politicians would have thrown Reverend Jeremiah Wright under the bus as they speeded off to the next campaign stop. What Obama said today is true of the American spirit and that simply is American’s never forget our past and our allies! If that isn’t a hint of Presidential qualities then I do not know what is.

I find it intriguing that people of the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Baptist faith are not bound by the labels that our Pope, Pastors, Rabbi’s, or Ministers are voicing from the pulpit as an individual but Barack Obama is? This was a bomb that was politically motivated to send the same message as the Bush 2000 race. Divide and conquer the voters and it backfired. America is changing year by year and those that refuse to accept that change will look to the past to bring down the leader of change. As the messenger of change in our American government Barack Obama has been the light and the hope for a better tomorrow. He has handled this issue like a true statesman and that is proof of how he will act as President of these United States of America.

Racism is an ugly word and it has no place in what America can be for all of its people. I’m personally blessed to have many people of many different nationalities that are Americans as friends. You get those friends by simply starting off with a hello and enjoy the conversations from there. Much like Smokey the Bear‘s message, only you can end Racism in America.

Papamoka

Feel free to link to or borrow this post…

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com and Bring It ON!

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McCain Rove Connection

With all the hype about McCain being the only qualified GOP candidate you don’t hear much about former Governor Huckabee who is still in the race. That is till he starts winning states over McCain.

Over at GOP central they possibly manipulated this election with the Romney drop out but they never considered the Huckabee chip in this election. In the game of political chess the GOP was praying that Huckabee would follow Romney’s lead and just drop out of the process thus ensuring a unified GOP political machine. This is how the big boys play chess and sometimes the moves you make are missed when the player your are protecting is way over on the other side of the chess board.

Over at the Washington Post they have this on the current political state of the GOP. Somebody is moving the pieces on the board over at the GOP and it isn’t just John McCain…

Karl Rove, President Bush's former senior political adviser, did his best to shoot down Huckabee's chances. Rove said on CBS that it is far-fetched to presume that McCain will say or do something to doom his candidacy.

Huckabee "said he could win, provided that there were mistakes made by his opponent, and that some of these bound or pledged delegates would change their mind. Well, even if they change their mind, they're bound or pledged to vote for the candidate who won their primary," Rove said. "I find it very unlikely, completely implausible, that Governor Huckabee could win 83 percent of the delegates."

As Bush's adviser, Rove ran a brutal campaign against McCain as Bush and the senator dueled for the GOP nomination in 2000. But this week, Rove donated money to the McCain campaign. - Washington Post

Karl Rove should have been put in jail with the CIA identity agent leak scandal but that is another story for another day. If he is the background of the GOP then that is the type of folks they want in the White House once more. Make no mistake about it Karl Rove has his hand in this election process and the tactics he will use against any opponent will be far worse than you have ever seen.

Not to detract from the political record of John McCain, I’m wondering if he sent Karl Roves check back? Common sense would dictate that you do not want anything to do with the Bush crew of more lies, more deception, more smoke and mirrors and more screwing over of America. That isn’t the Straight Talk Express of McCain but I’m betting the farm that the check cleared and McCain is dirty with it.

Is it just me or is it just politics where a man could stab you in the back eight years ago but then he believes in your message today? Push poll and call you a coward and having a child unrecognized by the father eight years ago but he’s your guy for President in 2008? It’s up to the Huckabee Campaign to pick up on this and run with it but then again he’s running on a shoe string budget.

Any connection to any campaign by Karl Rove is a death sentence simply because everyone running for President is running against what Bush and Karl Rove did to America. Common sense dictates that you don’t touch the same burner on the stove once you have burned your fingers. You just don’t do it ever again.

That all being said, Obama or Clinton have an EZ Pass to the White House. Save this post, this was the undoing of John McCain in this Presidential election. That makes this Democrat happy.

Papamoka

Feel free to link to or borrow this post…

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Follow the Drug Enforcement Money…

When it comes to our government spending money to stop trafficking in drugs across our border for some odd reason I don’t think it is a good idea to hand the government of Mexico BILLIONS of dollars to do so! Yes, I said “DO SO!“ Call me an idiot but is there not tons of stories and links to the corruption riddled government that is directly linked to the Mexican government. For that matter our own government is riding the grey area of legality all over the place lately simply because everyone else is getting away with it.

Common sense tells me that if you do not want your house robbed you do not pay the thieves off to not rob you to begin with. You grab the home run baseball bat that you still have from your little league days and you defend your home and border to keep the drugs out. Signing a check out for cash to an intruder was not part of my upbringing? Apparently, the White House has another opinion according to the Washington Post…

Increased Enforcement Disrupts Drug Supply From Mexico, White House Says

By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 2, 2007; Page A09

MEXICO CITY, Oct. 1 -- Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels and stepped-up U.S. border enforcement have disrupted the flow of illegal drugs and caused cocaine supply shortages in 37 U.S. cities, including Washington, according to a report scheduled for release Tuesday by the White House drug policy office.

Cocaine prices have nearly doubled in some cities and soared from a nationwide average of $95.89 a gram during the first quarter of this year to $118.70 in the second quarter, the report says. Law enforcement officials track drug supply levels in part by monitoring prices. Rising prices typically indicate reduced supplies.

Snip…follow the money

"This is historic progress," John Walters, director of the White House drug policy office, said in a telephone interview from Washington on Monday. "We've never worked better together."

Walters also said that "we're a couple of days away from releasing details" of a massive aid package to help Mexico fight drug cartels. "We're finalizing things."

The aid package is expected to be the largest U.S. anti-drug endeavor overseas since the 2000 launch of Plan Colombia, a multibillion-dollar campaign designed to eradicate coca and erode support for Marxist rebels. The Mexico proposal, which will likely require congressional approval, will probably have two phases, a top Bush administration official said Monday. The first phase, which would include money for training and equipment, would be "just shy of $1 billion," the official said.

Independent of the aid package, the Bush administration says it is engaged in reshaping its drug strategy along nearly 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. The strategic counter-narcotics plan, which Walters plans to release Tuesday in San Diego after meeting with state, federal and local law enforcement officials, calls for more efficient distribution of information among U.S. agencies and for sharing more information with Mexican law enforcement. - Washington Post

Mexico is going to share the information on drug trafficking enforcement after they cash the check? I’m ROFLMFAO over this one. Paying off another corrupt government is the answer for this President and it will never work. This policy is from the same administration that will not fund no child left behind? Would it not make more sense to spend the money on the future and our children’s anti drug education rather than pay off the Cartel’s through a Mexican government broker? Maybe the Congress should look at saving the drug cartels the broker payment fees and just electronically transfers the BILLIONS directly to the drug cartels.

Bush will not look at health care for our families but he is willing to spend BILLIONS in Mexico for a drug policy that is more or less offsetting the losses that the Cartels are suffering due to stronger boarder patrols. As much as I would like to think that this might work, all I see is money down the tubes. Gone, check was cashed, no identification needed. Here is your free toaster Mr. Bush!

Follow the money and you too will see the joke that this really is. Bush, like his father before him as President is chucking the bird at the people at home. Money that comes from American taxpayers will be spent at the will of the President and if his popularity at home is not good enough for us, maybe Mexico will have him? We can only hope.

Papamoka

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Side bar: I still need votes for Best Polical Blog Award. It's over in the side bar. Bloggers Choice Awards. Click on the link and search for Papamoka. I really appreciate all of your votes. I'm kicking the Gun Toting Liberals ass! Sorry bro but the facts are the facts...LOL!

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Ahmadinejad, The Voice of Iran?

Picture courtesy of Yahoo News

Crooks and Liars has this 60 Minutes interview...

Tell me that George W. Bush is the voice of America and you will get an earful from over seventy percent of the population. Tell me that Ahmadinejad is the voice of the Iranian people and you will here this Irish American with his Iranian American friends that will have an earful for you.

On the other hand, we have to listen to Bush with his theory on who is a terrorist. This is America and the man is welcome within the 25 miles of the United Nations because we are a nation of diplomats and peace keepers. We used to be anyway, and I’m sticking with my theory that we are a nation of peace keepers.

Let us just put this visit by the distinguished leader of Iran as what it is. It’s a rock star tour without the music, without the roadies that follow the bands, without the groupies and head bangers. Like Madonna or the Rolling Stones he is out on tour selling his music but the sad fact is that America can’t stand the lyrics. Something about September Eleventh and the chorus just doesn’t work.

What does work for him in his favor is that he has the guts to even come to this nation, a nation at war with world terrorism and speak at one of the greatest institutions our country has. Not just speak, he answered questions from the students. Whether they liked the answers or not was who the man is. Over at the Washington Post they have this great coverage and must read…

Ahmadinejad Met With Protests, Criticism at Columbia University
Iranian President Defends Country's Human Rights Record

By Robin Wright and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, September 24, 2007; 5:26 PM

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was greeted with student protests and withering public criticism during a visit to Columbia University Monday in which he defended his government's human rights record, denounced Israel and rejected U.S. efforts to restrict Iran's nuclear program.

Speaking to students and faculty at Columbia a day ahead of his scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly, the hard-line Iranian president also asserted that his people, including women, "enjoy the highest levels of freedom," and he claimed that homosexuality does not exist in his country. - Washington Post

Okay, this is where I change my opinion of this guy from Iran that says he speaks for all Iranian’s and wants a peaceful world for all men and woman. There are no homosexuals in Iran? Did they move out? I have to wonder if they moved or were just shot? If this guy isn’t in the closet then there is a serious issue with his entire concept of humanity and the percentages of life on this planet. Something does not smell right and it isn’t the dumpster at the back of the United Nations.

It gets better or it gets worse depending on your political philosophy. You know how history has recorded the deaths at the hands of the Nazi’s. It did not happen that way according to this President of Iran. Nope, never happened. No wait, he’s changing his story. But you have to look at Palestine to prove it! HUH?

Ahmadinejad, who in the past has argued that Israel should be "wiped off the map," repeated his assertions that the Holocaust should be researched "from different perspectives" and said Palestinians should not be "paying the price for an event they had nothing to do with." - Washington Post

Rather than thinking that all Iranian people back this man one hundred percent we should look at him as not a man of the world stage that he is performing on. Reality, facts, and the facts of history are obviously not in the hallowed halls that is the Iranian Government if this man is the voice of Iran.

One of my closest friends that came from Iran and became an American who is also Jewish told me of the non stop persecution of people for any reason if you did not follow the set down by the religious government. That is why his family came to America. Same scenario was happening in the 1600’s here on our shores and the same thing will continue here as long as freedom is our beacon to the world. Religious persecution and personal sexual orientation is not in Iran because they force you out. Welcome to America.

One last thought. While this son of a bitch Ahmadinejad is preaching there are no homosexuals in Iran, how many other facets of human kind are not allowed in Iran. In the same breath you have to wonder how much of his personal philosophy is just right in line with our own President?
America used to be about diplomacy and talking to people and settling our differences. Even Ronald Regan talked with the Evil Empire! Bush talks to no one, and not one person listens in turn.

If our nation has no diplomacy or reaction to settle our differences around the world then America is no better than the administration that was Nazi Germany before World War II in Berlin.

Papamoka

Bush Lied, Cheney Lied and Scooter is Free

There is no proof more positive that this President and his crew are absolutely above the law than this move by President Bush. I. Scooter Libby will serve no jail time for crimes committed against the American people and its government because Bush says so.

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say about our "Does Not Apply to Me" President and his commutation of Scooter Libby for high crimes against America...

President Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 2, 2007; 7:28 PM

President Bush today commuted the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, sparing him the 30-month term to which he was sentenced last month for lying to federal investigators about his role in the White House leak of a CIA officer's identity.
Bush took the action just hours after a federal appeals court ruled that Libby was not entitled to remain free while he was appealing his conviction on four felonies. - Washington Post

America is officially up for sale when it comes to justice. Corruption in our government is only one simple coupon away from the Vice President's office.

Impeach Bush! Send him back to Texas or Maine or Levenworth. This is not a President but a corrupt corporate manager that just happens to be renting the White House out. This news only prooves that it is for sale to the highest bidder.

If your blood isn't boiling over this issue no matter what political party you belong to then you are not a person that believes in what the true America is all about. Justice is blind but it is not percieved the same way that it should apply to all in the eyes of this President.

This makes me sick!

So what are you going to do about it other than bitch and moan and reading this post? Calling your State Senator or Congressional Representative is a start! Let them know that this has your blood boiling! Get involved in the damn process and fix the wrong. No man is an island and this President is not a King. Although this President would like to think he is running a Monarchy he is not. Make your calls and do your part as a law abiding American citizen. Then bitch about it to your friends, family and neighbors and tell them to do their part!

Papamoka

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

Broken Hearts of Nine Firefighter Families

My heart felt prayers are with the nine families of the Firefighters lost in the fire in South Carolina. Out across the land many of American families will sit down to dinner tonight and Dad will be there. That will not be the case for nine families in South Carolina. When you sit down to your dinner table, say a prayer for those families. Pray for them to get through this difficult time as best they can, pray that they look to one another and embrace one another in grief and mourning knowing that the fallen firefighter in their family was a true hero. Not just any hero but an American hero.

Someone once said that God has no greater love than that of one that looses his own life to save another. I’ll be praying for the families of the lost firefighters. They need all of us now and it is up to all of us to remember the deeds of nine very brave men.

Over at the Washington Post they have this coverage on this tragedy in South Carolina…

S.C. Warehouse Fire Kills 9 Firefighters

By BRUCE SMITH
The Associated PressTuesday, June 19, 2007; 4:19 PM

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Fire swept through a furniture warehouse, collapsing its roof and killing nine firefighters inside _ the nation's deadliest single disaster for firefighters since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"Nine brave, heroic, courageous firefighters of the city of Charleston have perished fighting fire in a most courageous and fearless manner, carrying out their duties," Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley said at a morning news conference. "To all of their loved ones, our heart goes out to them." - Washington Post

Just as the nation grieved for the fallen six Firefighters in Worcester, MA we should come together as one people to think and pray for the nine lost in Charleston, South Carolina.

Call your local church and ask that the next service be in their honor. Above all remember to thank your local Firefighters for what they do every single day. When the alarm rings and they go out the door there is always the chance that some of them might never see the fire station or their families again. In Charleston they know that pain all to well today.

From the people of Worcester, MA we send our thoughts and prayers. May God bless them all.

Papamoka

Other folks talking about this tragedy...

The Rev. Chuck Currie