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Prosper by consumer spending, now suffer for of it.

The flaws of the US and credit economy are now being exposed one by one.  The latest evidence to indicate the length of the recession/depression could very well be later than sooner.  The caged beast known as consumer spending has now proven it can injure its keeper.  The Federal Reserve reported consumer borrowing fell in August for the first time in more than a decade as households, battered by rising job layoffs and the decaying economy, cut back sharply on their use of credit.

  Now that consumers are cutting back on their borrowing practices, in this time of despair, will they continue this practice once the economy recovers?  Will the government change its policies?  The policies of moving more more jobs and industry abroad has left the consumer as the only support in the US.  A dangerous path was chosen  and now the repurcussions are being felt.  What sense did it make to have one segment account for two-thirds of the total economic activity in the US?  The time has come for individuals to look after their own business and not worry about keeping up with their neighbors.  As it turn out their neighbors had “no clothes” as well.

Voter fraud and intimidation alive and well in 2008!

In what can only be considered another example of the sad state of the United States of America, Katherine Lucey of philly.com reports on some of the tactics used in predominantly black neighborhoods to depress citizens more likely vote democrat.

An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day.

Shocking is the fact that a country so devout in preaching freedom does not ensure that every one of its citizens is able to vote.  The US spends billions of dollars to ’spread’ democracy, but has done nothing but create a perversion of the idea back at home.

Allen Raymond, a former Republican operative who went to prison for three-months in 2006, suggests things have done nothing but become more”overt’ since the 80’s. 

Raymond list some time honored tricks:

- “Push-poll” phone calls using the guise of a survey to push negative information about a candidate.

 - Leaflets or emails listing the wrong date or a “rain date” for the election.

 - Automated voicemail messages telling voters that the location of their polling place has changed.

 - Repeated late night automated “robo-calls” with a message from a candidate.

In his book, “How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative”, Raymond describes how he helped devise other subtle tricks playing on voters’ prejudices during the 2000 congressional race in New Jersey. 

To complicate the matter, ven though voters may survive the intimadation tactics, it may not be enough.  More and more evidence has been revealed that contractors with ties to the GOP have been hired in many states such as Illinois, Colorado and Kentucky to count your vote. Bev Harris of Blackboxvoting.org has an indepth piece regarding tactics that are in place even for the 2008 election

What should come to no surprise to anyone, is the fact that these tactics seemed to be incorporated by one group.  Whether they are using this tactics against their opponents or even amongst each other, the GOP is guilty of disabling democracy.

More bailouts, backed by taxpayer funds…great?

 

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Federal Reserve announced a new program to help the battered market for short-term business loans – taking its closest step yet to lending directly to businesses.

The program addresses commercial paper, a form of short-term funding that is crucial to many businesses operations.

In the past month, the amount of money outstanding in commercial paper loans has fallen 11% to $1.6 trillion on Oct. 1 from $1.82 trillion on Sept. 10. Since much of the paper that was outstanding at the start of the credit crisis is now coming up for renewal, there were fears that it could drop even more sharply in the weeks to come without some drastic improvement in the market.

Under the program announced Tuesday morning, the Fed will purchase three-month unsecured and asset-backed commercial paper directly from eligible issuers. The program is slated to expire in April 2009 and will have financial support from taxpayers.

“The Treasury believes this facility is necessary to prevent substantial disruptions to the financial markets and the economy and will make a special deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in support of this facility,” said the Fed’s statement.

Do the Conservatives need a new leader?

With all the talk of Stephane Dion’s soon-to-over leadership.  Should conservatives not be discussing the failings of Stephen Harper’s leadership.  The Globe and Mail is reporting recent polling suggest the Tories are headed back to ‘minority’ status, again.

In a time when Canadian politics appear to be in their most dysfunctional state, questions must be raised as to why Stephen Harper cannot earn a majority government from the Canadian voter.   If ever there was a time to be elected, and take legitmate control away from the LIberals it is now, but clearly being the ‘best of the worst’ has not generated any type of excitement with the voter.

No matter how many sweater are pulled from the closet, they all have two stains no amount of ’shout’ can remove.  Stephen Harper still comes across as out of touch with most Canadians.  He did nothing but reinforce that point when, during the debates,  he [Mr. Harper] said “Canadians weren’t particularly worried about their jobs or their homes; they were more concerned about the stock market”.  The second issue goes back to Mr. Harpers intentions for this country.  Mr. Harper’s ‘hidden agenda’ has many Canadian concerned.  An Ipsos Reid poll found when asking Canadians if Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a “hidden agenda”,  the following results were gathered: [Ontario 50%, Atlantic Canada 43% and Québec 38%] answering YES.

Apart from his personality issues, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives called this election not out of necessity or even as a result of a Motion of Confidence, but in an attempt to take  advantage of the Liberal leadership issues.  Based on the campaign thus far, they have attempted to make this an election on ‘leadership’ and not a campaign of an issue or policy that concerns Canadians.  As a result, this campaign can be compared to a Seinfeld episode, about ‘nothing’.

 CTV News Mail reports “In the both the 2004 and 2006 elections, the Conservatives lost a significant amount in the final days leading up to the election.”  The pattern of the 2 previous elections seems to be recurring. 

When ‘push comes to shove”, Canada does not trust Stephen Harper.

Keating 5 History lesson.

Update: Check out http://keatingeconomics.com/

For anyone not aware of the Keating Five, here’s a very simple summary:

Charles Keating owned a savings and loan in California. He was illegally using the money of his bank’s customers to give loans to himself and friends that they didn’t have to repay, and to speculate on risky real estate investments, which was strictly forbidden by U.S. law (and was one cause of the Great Depression).

When the feds found out what was going on and launched an investigation into Keating and his company, Keating called five U.S. Senators whom he had wined, dined, and lavished with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and personal gifts.

Keating asked the five Senators to tell the feds to bug off, and the five Senators, later known as the Keating Five, obliged, meeting with federal investigators twice and pressuring them to stop investigating Keating’s crimes. They bought Keating some time, but the feds didn’t give up and eventually Keating was nailed. The reason the feds were so persistent was because Keating wasn’t playing with mere chump change. Keating blew $3.4 billion through illegal personal loans and bad investments, and the FDIC had to reimburse Keating’s customers who had been ripped off.

(Background Info – Keating wasn’t the only Savings and Loan owner who was committing fraud, 20% of the S&L’s that failed during that three year period were found to have been caused by fraud and/or insider trading. The failure of the Lincoln Savings and Loan and other S&L’s pushed the country into a recession, costing the U.S. government $126 billion dollars in FDIC insurance payouts to investors. All of this came to a crescendo during the first year of the presidency of George H.W. Bush, who pushed through the S&L bailout plan to keep the economy afloat.)

When the involvement of the Keating Five was made public, a scandal erupted and the Senate Ethics Committee launched their own investigation into whether the Keating Five had violated Senate ethics rules. The other four Senators left office either immediately or within one term. John McCain was formally rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for exercising “poor judgment” for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating, but because McCain accepted Keating’s gifts of travel and vacations to Bahama while McCain was a member of the House of Representatives (he served one term there before moving to the Senate), the Senate claimed they had no jurisdiction to censure McCain. (However the meetings to pressure federal regulators occurred during the first few months of McCain serving in the Senate in 1987, so that excuse doesn’t hold up)

John McCain then went back to the drawing board and re-invented himself as “the Straight-Talk Express” and the media gobbled it up. “Tax-Evading-Criminal” doesn’t sound as catchy as “Straight-Shooting-War-Hero”.

Ever since the scandal, when McCain lies today, it’s never questioned, because he’s a “straight talker”. The man has more skeletons in his closet than any politician in history. The Keating Five is just one bone.

After reading the Slate article, ask yourself: if Obama or any other candidate had a scandal such as the Keating Five in their past, would the mainstream media never question it? Could any other candidate even have a political career after the Keating Five? For the other four Senators, the answer is no. And while Charles Keating went to prison for his role in the scandal, John McCain swept it under the rug and could soon be President of the United States of America.

Read the full Slate.com article here.

The FDIC also has a list of recommendations for further reading on Charles Keating and the Lincoln Savings and Loan.

Replace Sarah Palin with Elizabeth Hasslebeck!!

Judging by the reception of John McCain’s choice of a young female character to his campaign, he may well have been on to something.  His only problem,  picking the wrong talking [pretty] head.  The choice of Sara Palin was suppose to show McCain’s ‘Maverick’ tendencies.  Demonstrate that he will not make decisions based on the status quo.  He almost had America at ‘hello’.  Sara Palin looked the part, she had their value,  even had enough credentials to give the campaign something to promote.  However, when under pressure she could not string together a coherent sentence unless she had memorized it (See debates) or read it from a teleprompter (See convention).

McCain needed to choose a woman who is dedicated to the cause, willing to learn and follow like a little Nazi youth.  That person is Elizabeth Hasslebeck.  Such has always been the case; the republican movement is based on propagating ignorance and demanding blind loyalty in its followers in order to acheive personal gain for its leaders.  Elizabeth Hasselbeck clearly is not one of the leaders, a pawn who has been programmed to spew campaign generated talking points.   At no time has she been able to eleaborate on a point, only distracting from the real issue or ensuring the ‘right’s’ point of view is injected into the sub conscious of the viewer.  She stays on message, no matter what. 

Elizabeth Hasselbeck demonstrates qualities that would be useful and  qualifications easily promoted by the GOP campaign.   Above all, she carries a complete and utter disregard for any other view point.  From the perspective of the Republican machine, there could be no better quality.  As if a micro version of Fox News; no matter the information or the reality Fox News blindly directs the viewer to their ‘other’ reality.  What else could you ask for?

Things heated up even more after Elisabeth took a swipe at Joe Biden, prompting Barbara Walters to say, “Every single day you never ever say, maybe there’s another point, so this is your chance….Tell us now why you think that Sarah Palin would make a very good President.”

Elisabeth’s response? “Tell me why Barack Obama is qualified to be President.

Does she know the issues, will she be prepared should the President go down?  Of course she can.  In some cases Elizabeth Hasselbeck may be even better suited than Palin.  Who of these 2 woman has spent more time preparing and learning all the republican talking points?  Who is battle tested on television each and every day?  Who is ready to take on the ‘elite liberal media’?  She has been in the trenches Monday through Friday, for a 20 minutes each day.  Bring on Katie Couric!! 

Just as Sarah Palin is qualified because she has lead “a microcosm of the United States of America“,  Elizabeth Hasselbeck has dealt with the trials and tribulations of Survivor, a ‘microcosm’ as any other.

 By the way…..Comedy Central has ideas for her replacement as well.

Mrs. Palin….See you in 8 years.

The ‘great’ debate is over.  For Sarah Palin, it was “mission accomplished”.  As a result of so many shocking missteps, the expectations were amazingly low and she surpassed those expections.  All she needed to do was prove she could string together a coherent sentence.  Good for you.

Her handlers finally were able to prepare to the point where she could provide some basic talking points when asked questions during the debate.  Thank God the debate rules were altered whereby allowing her to duck any real challenges that would have normally occurred in a debate.

Mrs. Palin demonstrated she posseses some basic skill and talent proving she does have potential.  However, Palin does have one glaring weakness, her lack of knowledge on almost any subject is frightening.  Throughout the course of a campaign, how long would she be able to get by with the same words and phrases?  She was too reliant on key phrases and words, I.e. “Maverick”.  Without a doubt the fault of her campaign organizors and handlers.  Her issues come back to one strategy mistake.  Choosing a candidate, with her experience,  only 40 days ago was a huge mistake.

Mrs Palin, you have now been introduced to the world. They seem to like you, the ‘right’ anyway.  Now take the next eight years, prepare, get involved in things outside Alaska, and for goodness sake, get a few more stamps on that passport.  In you, the Republican party, may have a significant contender 8 years from now.

UPDATE: This article was fortunate to have been fortunate enough to make it all the way to Number 2 on Propeller’s Most Popular Stories on the 3rd and 4th of October.  Just wanted to remind all our readers out there that they can subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to day with The WoodLawn Review.

Plain Palin is a Millionaire

“So much for being Joe Sixpack or plain Jane.”

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As far as anyone is concerned, there are other better things to criticize when it comes to Governor Palin.  The fact that she has saved her money, made good deals and does not carry credit card debt should be applauded.   Are her critics saying that if you are not in debt,  she cannot relate to ‘joe six pack’?  Oh…do I hear the elites talking again….?

And lets focus a bit, take away her governors position and her income drops considerably.

The SURGE WORKED!!!!….maybe not.

According to a Rasmussen Reports, “For the first time since Rasmussen Reports began polling on the issue, a plurality of voters in September say the U.S. mission in Iraq will be viewed as a success in the long term.”

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Sighting survey data, “41% said history will rate the war in Iraq a success versus 39% who said it will be seen as a failure, with 20% undecided.”  This contrasts polling done in August of 2007 which showed 57% believed history would judge the US mission in Iraq a failure.

What is influencing this trend?  Could it be the US and Iraqi government are taking claim for something their well thought plans had nothing to do with?  One contributing factor, according to The Independent seems to be ”…the Iraqi government and the US have launched a largely successful propaganda campaign to convince the world that “things are better” in Iraq and that life is returning to normal.”

When it comes to public attention spans, 5 years seems to be the wilting point.  Quite an important factor to consider.  Less time needs to be reported on Iraq, ‘lighter’ the content can be.   In February only 3% of news stories were dedicated to the Iraq war, compared to 15% in July 2007.  As a result, the general public  seems to have assumed progress is being made.

With less viewers, it is easier for those who are in favor of this mission to point out positive statistics such as the lower number of deaths as of late, while ignoring the 30,000 injured. Low and behold the surge must of worked!    When news is picked up from Iraq, the public is given stories to show them things are getting better.  For example, Iraq is in the planning stages of building the world’s largest Ferris wheel in attempt to attract tourist.  Yes, a Ferris wheel.

What is not mentioned by the media or US Intelligence, for that matter, is the real reason for the decrease in violence towards US forces.  The Sunni (Pro Sadam) community, which was largely responsible for attacks on the US, has largely been defeated by the Shia forces in Iraq.  A group supported by Iran.  if were not for Iran’s involvement in having Nouri al-Maliki appointed PM and encouraging Muqtada al-Sadr to agree to a cease fire, the environment on the ground would be considerably different.  So for all the comments coming from the West, regarding Iran and its leader, caution should be taken to consider that Iran is largely responsible for the decrease in violence.

The real story on the ground remains Baghdad averages approximately 2 hours of electricity a day, 4.7 million refugees who left Baghdad still are unable to return to their homes and “Whatever the reason for President George Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003, it was not to place the Shia Islamic parties in power and increase the influence of Iran in the country; yet that is exactly what has happened.”, Patrick Cockburn.

Resources

Heritage foundation

The Independent

Rasmussen Reports