Things are turning around

[froy]

I don't know about you but things seem to be heading in an upward direction.
Gas is down under 3 bucks and attitudes are getting better
As you can see by the gas situation nobody was buying gas at 4 bucks so what happened it dropped quickly
I say don't buy gas at 3 bucks either stay away and it will be back under 2 bucks soon.

Bush is the reason the US was in a mess
He's gone and so goes the mess.

Time for a new direction
Lets make some money

Pass it on...

[LordofDaRing]

Don't make to much money my friend, you will have it redistributed to all the hard working welfare recipients if certain people get their way. By the way, George Bush has as much control over gas prices as Gowan does...maybe less.

[DarrenUK]

Better still make more money, then if you earn over $1m a year you can expect a nice tax break from the old man if he wins the election ......... tax breaks for the top 5% and nothing for everyone else ....... thats fair eh ..... fuck main street

[LordofDaRing]

Ha, here is a news flash for you....(people that make $1M a year don't pay taxes)

Besides Obama has had four years in the Senate to do the right thing and vote for all of these middle income tax cuts and he didn't. But elect him as president and by god he will.

You are right about main street, when do we get the independent investigation on what really happened to Fannie and Freddie, Chris Todd and Barney Frank's involvement, and lets not forget their prime time player Obama.

[DarrenUK]

Dont forget Rick Davis, main player in McSame's campaign team ........ paid $30,000 a month by ........ guess who ?

[LordofDaRing]

Oh when it comes to a $700 Billion buy out, I have no political loyalty my friend, I say get all of them. You can bet if more Republicans were on this list, there would be a congressional cry out. Where is Kenneth Lay these days, why in prison where he belongs. I do have a problem, with one of the main culprits (Frank) stating publicy that it is the tax payer's duty to bail out Mae and Mac and that he personally bears no responsibility at all. Plus other partners in crime laying the entire collapse of fannie and freddie on "failed Bush policies". Rubbish as you might say.

[Toph]

Dont forget Rick Davis, main player in McSame's campaign team ........ paid $30,000 a month by ........ guess who ?

Hey Commie go back to England

[Jodes]

So Toph, just because someone doesn't like John McCain he's a Commie?

Please.

[chowhall]

So Toph, just because someone doesn't like John McCain he's a Commie?

Please.

Yes

[Zan]

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700 billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles, you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no principles.

That's where you are right now.

It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven and earth to get the true story out there.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a news paper in our city.

[yogi]

GREAT 100% true article!!!!!

I can't believe that people wont open their eyes to what has been going on for years.

Moving on, When Biden said that Barack will be tested immediately he is 100% correct.

If McCain wins he too will be tested soon.

The test will be when our country collapses economically, educationally, through our health care system and from attacks launched from within that will be brought on 100% by our imigration policy.

What has been happening for the last 2 decades is something we or our children will NEVER be able to absorb.

We are literally spending trillions of dollars supporting an element that beside being illegal is sucking the life out of our economy. This will make our current economic crisis seem like a lukewarm shower when it fully hits and then both parties will point fingers at one another and have not a clue as to what to do and how to solve this crisis.

We have become soooooooo dam n politically correct that we have allowed the lowest possible element to walk right in to our society illegally and a majority of us have accepted them with open arms.

When our entire nation crumbles based on this. What are we going to do? Who are we going to blame??

It wont matter which party is in the White House , or running congress it will all be too late.

If it isn't already.

[LordofDaRing]

God bless you Zan!

Actually that same similar article was posted in a similar forum here. It came from a Liberal SF newspaper!!
I have to tell you I was furious at John McCain the other night during the debate. He wants to come across as this maverick who does not support Bush and disagrees with his own party so much, that he forgets that he is running against Obama. So fine, lest forget about Ayers, forget about Reverend Wright, forget about ACORN (well, lets not go to far Lord) and let us discuss the economy. And how we got to where we are today. Is this CHANGE?? Will there be an investigation in an Obama/Biden administration of these events?? Do any of you Obama supporters have a response to Zan's article??? Does Sarah Palin's credentials or lack there of, still support voting for a man who represents and apparently has contributed to the fact that you and I just shelled out $700M for a bunch of crooks. And once again, if there were any Republicans tied to it, prosecute them!!!! Is there anybody out there (P. Floyd).....

[Zan]

The point of posting the article was not to "prove" anything more than the fact that none of us will EVER know all the facts because the media itself is so slanted. And none of this will change the fact that *I* hate Sarah Palin with a feckin passion. lol

[yogi]

Please tell us why you hate her so??

Is it her abortion stance??? If so you must hate one third of our country.

Is it because she is a woman and has these views??


Is it her gay rights views??

If thats it you probably hate about one fourth of our country.

Is it with your superior knowledge and insight you cant believe that a woman might not be for gay rights.



Is it that she is an outdooors woman?, A former beauty queen?, has a special needs child?, want's to drill??, you hate her because McCain picked her( kind of like Froy with Gowan)??, is unqualified in your opinion???? It's a combination of all these things???

Please tell us WHY you hate her so??????????

[Zan]

Please tell us WHY you hate her so??????????

I've already told you why before. Mostly I hate her because of her barbaric tactics on the wolf, bear, and moose population. I'm not anti-hunting, but I am against unethical and cruel slaughtering of defenseless animals for profit and personal trophies. However, her stance on gay rights, abortion, and the fact that she's an environmental nightmare don't help her cause with me much either. The fact that she's not very experienced is only par for the course.

[DarrenUK]

Please tell us why you hate her so??

Is it her abortion stance??? If so you must hate one third of our country.

Is it because she is a woman and has these views??


Is it her gay rights views??

If thats it you probably hate about one fourth of our country.

Is it with your superior knowledge and insight you cant believe that a woman might not be for gay rights.



Is it that she is an outdooors woman?, A former beauty queen?, has a special needs child?, want's to drill??, you hate her because McCain picked her( kind of like Froy with Gowan)??, is unqualified in your opinion???? It's a combination of all these things???

Please tell us WHY you hate her so??????????

Apart from being an airhead I think it is because she allows the slaughter of wolves for financial gain .... $150 a right paw so I believe .....

[yogi]

Zanski, all I can say to your answer is.............Small potatoes!!!!!!!!!!!(Dan Quayle spelling)


Yo Darren,


Have you ever had a wolf rip a small dog from your arms, how about a moose running through your favorite picture window??

Until you have and you are US eligible zip it!!!

[Zan]

Please tell us why you hate her so??

Is it her abortion stance??? If so you must hate one third of our country.

Is it because she is a woman and has these views??


Is it her gay rights views??

If thats it you probably hate about one fourth of our country.

Is it with your superior knowledge and insight you cant believe that a woman might not be for gay rights.



Is it that she is an outdooors woman?, A former beauty queen?, has a special needs child?, want's to drill??, you hate her because McCain picked her( kind of like Froy with Gowan)??, is unqualified in your opinion???? It's a combination of all these things???

Please tell us WHY you hate her so??????????

Apart from being an airhead I think it is because she allows the slaughter of wolves for financial gain .... $150 a right paw so I believe .....

Right - that's why I "hate" her (actually, I don't *hate* anyone. I should say this is what "strongly nauseates me about her."). Reasons I don't like her or want her for a VP have to do with her stance on the domestic & environmental issues, but most importantly her stance on stem cell research, which is flawed and very sad. She represents every ignorance there is in this country.

And Yogi, if my distaste for Palin because of her opinions about gay rights makes me feel the same about 1/3 of the population (or whatever number you pulled out of your ass), so be it. I think she (and anyone holding the same opinions as her) is ignorant. If she was a racist bigot, I'd dislike her for that too - as well as any person sharing her opinions. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, if there's any room left in there.

I am, however, glad she as selected because of what it's done for Tina Fey.

[Zan]

Zanski, all I can say to your answer is.............Small potatoes!!!!!!!!!!!(Dan Quayle spelling)


Yo Darren,


Have you ever had a wolf rip a small dog from your arms, how about a moose running through your favorite picture window??

Until you have and you are US eligible zip it!!!

Oh. Well, you told him!

[yogi]

Who is Tina Fey???

P.S. I am 100% for stem cell research and have the tax deductions for years to prove it. It is vital for what could be soooooo many medical advances, and to improve peoples quality of life.

As for your gay stance, it's a non issue.

P.P.S. Your distaste is also because you CAN'T believe that a woman in the year 2008 can think the way she does. It is anti womens rights and it eats at you to the core.


yogi

believe me, I know my Zan

[chowhall]

Please tell us why you hate her so??

Is it her abortion stance??? If so you must hate one third of our country.

Is it because she is a woman and has these views??


Is it her gay rights views??

If thats it you probably hate about one fourth of our country.

Is it with your superior knowledge and insight you cant believe that a woman might not be for gay rights.



Is it that she is an outdooors woman?, A former beauty queen?, has a special needs child?, want's to drill??, you hate her because McCain picked her( kind of like Froy with Gowan)??, is unqualified in your opinion???? It's a combination of all these things???

Please tell us WHY you hate her so??????????

Apart from being an airhead I think it is because she allows the slaughter of wolves for financial gain .... $150 a right paw so I believe .....

Right - that's why I "hate" her (actually, I don't *hate* anyone. I should say this is what "strongly nauseates me about her."). Reasons I don't like her or want her for a VP have to do with her stance on the domestic & environmental issues, but most importantly her stance on stem cell research, which is flawed and very sad. She represents every ignorance there is in this country.

And Yogi, if my distaste for Palin because of her opinions about gay rights makes me feel the same about 1/3 of the population (or whatever number you pulled out of your ass), so be it. I think she (and anyone holding the same opinions as her) is ignorant. If she was a racist bigot, I'd dislike her for that too - as well as any person sharing her opinions. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, if there's any room left in there.

I am, however, glad she as selected because of what it's done for Tina Fey.

We had to go down this road again about Palin because? BTW, what disease has stem cell research cured? There are quite a number of diseases that embrionic research has cured without the God manipulation of Human life that occurs in stem cell research. Stem Cell research has very dangerous implications that are not totally unlike German manipulation of the 30's and 40's.

[Zan]

We had to go down this road again about Palin because?

1. becasue I was specifically asked.

2. because it bears repeating.

BTW, what disease has stem cell research cured? There are quite a number of diseases that embrionic research has cured without the God manipulation of Human life that occurs in stem cell research. Stem Cell research has very dangerous implications that are not totally unlike German manipulation of the 30's and 40's.

My guitarist has 25 % regrowth of his HEART back, for starters.

Stem cell research does not test on aborted fetuses anymore. They use regular human tissue from everyday muscles, like what they did with Scott (my guitar player). What diseases has it cured? What an obtuse question. I'm surprised coming from you. Have they cured breast cancer yet? ANY cancer? How much money has the government thrown at THAT research? Spare me.

[yogi]

When almost 100% of the researchers in the field say that stem cells could be the cure for many types of paraylsis, MS and many ,many other horific diseases we must believe them.

[chowhall]

We had to go down this road again about Palin because?

1. becasue I was specifically asked.

2. because it bears repeating.

BTW, what disease has stem cell research cured? There are quite a number of diseases that embrionic research has cured without the God manipulation of Human life that occurs in stem cell research. Stem Cell research has very dangerous implications that are not totally unlike German manipulation of the 30's and 40's.

My guitarist has 25 % regrowth of his HEART back, for starters.

Stem cell research does not test on aborted fetuses anymore. They use regular human tissue from everyday muscles, like what they did with Scott (my guitar player). What diseases has it cured? What an obtuse question. I'm surprised coming from you. Have they cured breast cancer yet? ANY cancer? How much money has the government thrown at THAT research? Spare me.

No one has any issue with research on regular human tissue. Stem cell research is taking sperm and egg and trying to manipulate the results. So far no stem cell research has resulted in anything other than mutation. The research you're referring to is legal and moral by most religions. The stem cell research advocated by Christopher Reeves and others is pure genetic manipulation. I'm surprised at you.

[LordofDaRing]

"Apart from being an airhead I think it is because she allows the slaughter of wolves for financial gain .... $150 a right paw so I believe ....."

Wow, since Jethro Biden is on the other ticket who thinks FDR appeared on national television to talk about the current stock market crash, who is convinced that there will be a major attack on the United States when Obama is elected (Barrak says thanks for that) and who has made many moronic comments in the past including one dealing with Indians running 7 11 gas stations...who exactly are you going to cast your vote for again??? Oh yeah, the wolf issue. Hmmm well I guess Jethro doesn't kill too many wolves up in Conneticuit.

"The point of posting the article was not to "prove" anything more than the fact that none of us will EVER know all the facts because the media itself is so slanted. And none of this will change the fact that *I* hate Sarah Palin with a feckin passion. lol"

Ah ha, just trying tease Yogi and I huh. Oh I knew we didn't actually witness a conversion here, I was just applauding that at least you have the guts to print it. Tisk Tisk on that hate thing now, we should all love our fellow human beings....

"I am, however, glad she as selected because of what it's done for Tina Fey."

Not to mention, what it has done for SNL lately. Was anybody really watching this show anymore. I know I haven't tuned in a long time.

[Zan]

We had to go down this road again about Palin because?

1. becasue I was specifically asked.

2. because it bears repeating.

BTW, what disease has stem cell research cured? There are quite a number of diseases that embrionic research has cured without the God manipulation of Human life that occurs in stem cell research. Stem Cell research has very dangerous implications that are not totally unlike German manipulation of the 30's and 40's.

My guitarist has 25 % regrowth of his HEART back, for starters.

Stem cell research does not test on aborted fetuses anymore. They use regular human tissue from everyday muscles, like what they did with Scott (my guitar player). What diseases has it cured? What an obtuse question. I'm surprised coming from you. Have they cured breast cancer yet? ANY cancer? How much money has the government thrown at THAT research? Spare me.

No one has any issue with research on regular human tissue. Stem cell research is taking sperm and egg and trying to manipulate the results. So far no stem cell research has resulted in anything other than mutation. The research you're referring to is legal and moral by most religions. The stem cell research advocated by Christopher Reeves and others is pure genetic manipulation. I'm surprised at you.

Yep - so many people fear the unknown. It's much easier to keep everything in the safe little world they've grown accustomed to living in. Good thing for my husband's best friend that he didn't succumb to that mentality, or he'd be dead today, instead of being head coach of his sons' soccer teams and watching them grow up.

[DarrenUK]

Zanski, all I can say to your answer is.............Small potatoes!!!!!!!!!!!(Dan Quayle spelling)


Yo Darren,


Have you ever had a wolf rip a small dog from your arms, how about a moose running through your favorite picture window??

Until you have and you are US eligible zip it!!!

I hope you have not been mugged and had a letter B carved on your face .....and I am US eligible.

[yogi]

If your wife leaves you for Rush or Sean Hannity can you legally stay in the U.S.A.????

P.S. Luckily I have not been mugged. The B stands for?, you lost me on that. The only carving on me is a small tatoo from back in my younger, drunker&more athletic daze. Three of us all got the same ink, upper left arm, it reads, 'Earn It'

[DarrenUK]

A McCain activist said she was mugged beaten and had a B carved into her face by a 6'4" black Obama supporter in Penn.

It was found to be a fake and she has been arrested the thing that is funny is that the McCain headquarters in Penn put out a press statement saying it was a diobolical attack and shows how McCain voters and activist maybe being targeted by Obama supporters ....... she later admitted carving the B in her face herself and making up the story ..... Republican headquarters said if this was a hoax we can kiss the election goodbye as we would be accused of race baiting ...... I wonder if the polls in Penn will show a double digit deficit for McCain now as the gap was 9 points .....BUT the only poll that matters is November 4th.

If my wife left me for Chuck Norris ide kick his face in

[Zan]

I've seen idiocy and hypocrisy on both sides of the fence in this campaign. I'm not defending anyone. Just saying that people always take this stuff to the extreme.