Saturday, September 27, 2008

Just The Facts, Ma’am! – 2008 Debate #1

Image Credit: NPR

Just The Facts, Ma’am! – 2008 Debate #1

In this day and age of twenty-four hour, seven day a week communications, one would think that what politicians say while campaigning would be 100% accurate.

In the first time that the candidates from our two major political parties stood side-by-side, Senator’s Barack Obama and John McCain delivered answers in a debate format that allowed for responses beyond snippets from a typical stump speech. When answers to questions involve responses from a person’s memory, inaccuracies in the facts can … and will occur.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has a website designed specifically to sweep the floor and scrub down the answers from both gentleman to define the facts behind the statements these candidates make.

Image Credit: NPR

This excerpted and edited from Fact Check dot Org –

FactChecking Debate No. 1
Facts muddled in Mississippi McCain-Obama meeting
September 27, 2008 - University of Mississippi at Oxford

Summary

McCain and Obama contradicted each other repeatedly during their first debate, and each volunteered some factual misstatements as well.
----
Analysis

The first of three scheduled debates between Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama took place Sept. 26 on the campus of the University of Mississippi at Oxford. It was sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. It was carried live on national television networks and was moderated by Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor of the PBS "NewsHour" program. We noted these factual misstatements:
Did Kissinger Back Obama?

McCain attacked Obama for his declaration that he would meet with leaders of Iran and other hostile nations "without preconditions." To do so with Iran, McCain said, "isn't just naive; it's dangerous." Obama countered by saying former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – a McCain adviser – agreed with him:

Obama: Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger, who's one of his advisers, who, along with five recent secretaries of state, just said that we should meet with Iran – guess what – without precondition. This is one of your own advisers.

McCain rejected Obama's claim:

McCain: By the way, my friend, Dr. Kissinger, who's been my friend for 35 years, would be interested to hear this conversation and Senator Obama's depiction of his -- of his positions on the issue. I've known him for 35 years.Obama: We will take a look.McCain: And I guarantee you he would not -- he would not say that presidential top level.Obama: Nobody's talking about that.
So who's right? Kissinger did in fact say a few days earlier at a forum of former secretaries of state that he favors very high-level talks with Iran – without conditions:

Kissinger Sept. 20: Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it. And, therefore, I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary of state level so that we -- we know we're dealing with authentic...CNN's Frank Sesno: Put at a very high level right out of the box?Kissinger: Initially, yes.But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations.

Later, McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, was asked about this by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, and Palin said, "I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.'" Afterward Couric
said, "We confirmed Henry Kissinger’s position following our interview."After the McCain-Obama debate, however, Kissinger issued a statement saying he doesn't favor a presidential meeting:

Kissinger: Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain.
----
Image Credit: NPR

Other responses handled in the above detailed manner are summarized as follows:

Obama denied voting for a bill that called for increased taxes on “people” making as little as $42,000 a year, as McCain accused him of doing. McCain was right, though only for single taxpayers. A married couple would have had to make $83,000 to be affected by the vote, and anyway no such increase is in Obama’s tax plan.

McCain and Obama contradicted each other on what Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said about troop withdrawals. Mullen said a time line for withdrawal could be “very dangerous” but was not talking specifically about “Obama’s plan,” as McCain maintained.

McCain tripped up on one of his signature issues – special appropriation “earmarks.” He said they had “tripled in the last five years,” when in fact they have decreased sharply.

Obama claimed Iraq “has” a $79 billion surplus. It once was projected to be as high as that. It’s now down to less than $60 billion.

McCain repeated his overstated claim that the U.S. pays $700 billion a year for oil to hostile nations. Imports are running at about $536 billion this year, and a third of it comes from Canada, Mexico and the U.K.

Obama said 95 percent of “the American people” would see a tax cut under his proposal. The actual figure is 81 percent of households.

Obama mischaracterized an aspect of McCain’s health care plan, saying “employers” would be taxed on the value of health benefits provided to workers. Employers wouldn’t, but the workers would. McCain also would grant workers up to a $5,000 tax credit per family to cover health insurance.
Reference Here>>

Thursday, September 11, 2008

9-11 Tribute: The Price Of Freedom

An Iraq Veteran (Joe Cook) has a personal message for Barack Obama.
(Ctrl-Click to launch YouTube video)

Here at Carter's Second Term, we believe this is the best way to recognize this anniversary of the day Islamic terrorist, in an attempt to reduce the freedoms we enjoy in this country, hijacked passenger jet airplanes, full of innocent people intending on getting to their destination city, and intentionally flew them into the two World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and into the ground in an open field in Pennsylvania (one intended for the White House in Washington D.C. but foiled and retaken by passengers).

Over 3,000 innocent souls were taken that day and our effort to right the wrongs that were created by this act perpetrated on September 11, 2001 are embodied in this video about the price of freedom by Iraqi theater veteran Joe Cook.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Obama - Really Does Put A Different Twist On "Lipstick"


Obama - Really Does Put A Different Twist On "Lipstick"

With the Obama*Biden campaign in full meltdown (some polls are showing a 20 percentage point swing in some key demographics since the beginning of the political convention season), Barack Obama is beginning to smell like Bob Dole.

Talk about a classless and unimaginative approach on an issue less political attack ... we have a totally ill-advised comment. He was calling the candidate for Vice-President of the United States on the Republican ticket, Sarah Palin, a pig.

How classy, intelligent, progressive, and totally Soros Wing-Daily Cos Democrat Political Party like was the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.

With this statement as an exhibit as a standard of political discourse ... the Democrat Party can forget seeing the Executive Branch of government for at least the next four years!

This act by Barack Obama shows us all a different "twist" on sexism.

This excerpted and edited from the Wall Street Journal -

Obama Puts Different Twist on Lipstick

Amy Chozick, WSJ - September 9, 2008, 6:23 pm

Lebanon, Virginia - What’s the difference between a more hopeful kind of politics and old-fashioned attacks? Lipstick.

Barack Obama says the John McCain-Sarah Palin policies don’t represent change, they’re “just calling the same thing something different.”

“You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” Obama said during a town-hall style event here Tuesday night.

The comment played on Republican vice presidential candidate Palin’s joke during the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick.
----
“You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change,’ it’s still going to stink,” Obama said. “After eight years, we’ve had enough of the same old thing. It’s time to bring about real change to Washington and that’s the choice you’ve got in this election.”

This isn’t the first time in a 24-hour period that lipstick has become an issue. As he was introducing Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, Missouri Rep. Russ Carnahan said Palin had “zero experience in national government, zero experience in foreign affairs. There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick.”

Republicans struck back, calling the attacks on Palin old-style Washington attacks that run counter to Obama’s promise of change. “Sarah Palin’s maverick record of reform doesn’t need any ‘dressing up,’ but the Obama campaign’s condescending commentary deserves some dressing down,” says RNC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson.
Reference Here>>

I heard the audio ... Trent Lott got clobbered for less!

As soon as I heard it,, I said to myself - "That's gonna' leave a mark!"

... and the mark will not be left on PALIN!

Jumping the "Pig" may just become a new reference when an event, performance, show, and, yes ... a political campaign is OVER!

Barack Obama just "Jumped The Pig!"

Just maybe, this signals the end of a run to install a Carter's Second Term.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Obama - No Conflicts? … So, No Military … “that’s the ticket”

Barack Obama struggling to answer a question that was asked by a viewer (who wrote in) of ABC News, 'This Week' on the Sunday interview show (Ctrl-Click to launch video). Image Credit: ABC News website

Obama - No Conflicts? … So, No Military … “that’s the ticket”

The neat thing about listening to Barack Obama speak when he is off-prompter (where a speech is written out for him to read directly from an image projected on to a reflective glass surface), is that it is really easy to tell when he is unprepared to respond to a particular issue or question that is asked – just listen.

He, the junior Senator from Illinois, is usually very smooth in his speaking style – clear, succinct, and directly to the point – especially on subjects he is well versed on and/or he is reading from a Teleprompter. When Barack has to answer a question he hasn’t thought about … and has to come up with an answer that he thinks will “sell” his “everyman” image, he puts a lot of unnecessary I’s, and’s, and ah’s which usually NEVER make it into a transcript of the answer that he gives.

On the Sunday political interview program aired on ABC-TV, ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopoulos, a question came up that illustrates the point quite clearly. The answer is so labored that it almost causes one to think back on the comedy sketch routinely played by Jon Lovitz where he floats an obvious bogus answer to a question posed --- and then mutters to himself, “Ahhh, that’s the ticket!”

This found at ABC News -

Obama’s Full ‘This Week’ Interview
Presidential hopeful chats with George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview.

09/07/2008

Watch FULL Video Here>>
-01:25 from the end


George Stephanopoulos asks, “One of our viewers wrote in, you talk about “Service”, and asks - Brenda Gottfried Bryant - Murietta, Georgia, “Did you ever consider joining our armed services to protect and serve our country, and if not, why?”

“You know, I actually did,” Obama said. “I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I had - (ah) - friends who, whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, (ah) military bases there.

“And (ah) I actually always thought (ah) of the military as (ah) some ennobling (ah) and, and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I (ah) graduated in 1979. (ah) The Vietnam War had come to an end. (ah) We weren't engaged (ah) in an active (ah) (ah) military conflict at that point. (ah) And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”


Barack Obama continues to answer on talking points that he has previously thought about and he resumes a smoother delivery in his answer.

We, at MAXINE, wish we could get a dollar for every (ah) that Barack Obama utters on answers to questions that are genuinely out of the socialist/progressive character template that Obama holds.

Just on this last exchange alone, we would get enough money ($13.00) to catch a fish taco lunch at the local Islands café, and have enough left over for a couple of beers!

Add the unecessary "And's" that mostly begin the sentences ($5.00), and one could invite a friend.

Ahhhh, that's the ticket!

Friday, September 5, 2008

Your Guns Will Be Safe In Carter’s Second Term

In an attempt to decrease the amount of drug-related violence plaguing their streets, Mexican police are offering to Xboxes to anyone turning in a gun. The program started Tuesday in Tepito, which police spokesman Ricardo Olayo called "a symbol of crime." Police raided Tepito last month, storming a tenement referred to as "The Fortress," supposedly a major cocaine and marijuana distributor. Scary stuff (pictured). Image Credit: Mohsin Raza/Reuters via WIRED - GAMELIFE

Your Guns Will Be Safe In Carter’s Second Term

So says the nominated leader of the Democrat Party for President of the United States, Barack Obama.

In his first appearance before a hand-picked crowd in a “town hall” setting at SCHOTT North America Inc., a glass factory in Duryea, Pa., Barack Obama spoke off-prompter and “ahhhh-ed” and “you know-ed” his way through a question he was not expecting.

In a response heard on the Hugh Hewitt talkradio program this afternoon, the audio response to the question about guns did not come across with a high level of confidence by the people in attendance … let’s just say most people were skeptical.

Obama was nervous and off the teleprompter, one can tell because he says “and”, “ahhh”, “you know”, and other ticks … a lot. He promised not to take our guns away … really.

This excerpted and edited from The Swamp -

Obama: 'Not going to mess with' guns

by James Oliphant - Posted September 5, 2008 1:49 PM

DURYEA, Pa.--At a campaign event here Friday, Barack Obama ran headlong into the one of the issues that dogs him in this battleground state.

"There are rumors going around that . . . you're going to take away our guns," said Joan O'Neil, a resident of tiny Susquehanna in northeastern Pennsylvania, a big-time area for hunting.

This gun issue that Obama has tried to deftly navigate throughout this long campaign and one that damaged him here in his primary fight with Hillary Clinton. And it's one that could do even him even further harm in the general election, as he is matched against a pro-gun ticket that includes a vice-presidential nominee who has been photographed firing an assault rifle.
----
"I believe in the Second Amendment, and if you are a law-abiding gun owner you have nothing to fear from an Obama administration," Obama said. "This has been peddled again and again. Here's what I believe: The Second Amendment is an indvidual right. . . people have the right to bear arms. But I also believe there is nothing wrong with some common-sense gun safety measures."

GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, now likely the most famous moose-hunter in the country, mocked Obama's stance on guns during her nomination speech Wednesday, when she accused him of talking "one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco," -- a reference to Obama's now infamous comment about some people in America who "cling to guns or religion."
----
"That kind of thing is common sense and has nothing to do with the guy who has got his rifle and wants to go hunting," Obama said. "Now the NRA -- I'll be honest and I'm sure there are NRA members here -- their general attitude is that we don't want anything, and if you even breathe the words 'gun control' or 'gun safety' then you must want to take away everybody's guns. Well, that's just not true."
----
At the campaign event Friday, Obama said that there are "two realities about guns" in the United States, one including lawful gun owners, hunters, and sportsmen and a second that involves the flow of illegal handguns and automatic weapons into cities such as Philadelphia, where they are used by "teenage gang-bangers."

"Surely, we can come up with a system that protects lawful gun-owners, but at the same time tries to do something about kids getting shot," he said. "That is, I think, the job of the president is to reconcile this tradition of gun ownership in this country, with some basic public safety concerns.”

Reference Here>>

Obama really steps in it here in that the responsibility of the Executive Branch, the top office Barack Obama is running for, is to uphold the laws that exist … not “to reconcile this tradition of gun ownership in this country, with some basic public safety concerns.” … THAT is the job of the Legislative Branch of our government, the Branch the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, is currently a member of.

And this excerpted and edited from the Wall Street Journal -

Obama: ‘I’m Not Going to Take Your Guns Away’
Christopher Cooper, Wall Street Journal - September 5, 2008

The Obama campaign talks a lot about new ideas and expanding the political map, but in the swing state of Pennsylvania, which the campaign has focused on almost exclusively since the Democratic convention, old-school issues still rise to the fore.
----
A woman in the crowd told Obama she had “heard a rumor” that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president. Obama trotted out his standard policy stance, that he had a deep respect for the “traditions of gun ownership” but favored measures in big cities to keep guns out of the hands of “gang bangers and drug dealers’’ in big cities “who already have them and are shooting people.”

“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.

So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’
Reference Here>>

So, if we are to trust and take a “President Obama" serving his tenure of a President Carter second term at HIS word ... that if he actually HAD enough votes in Congress, he would NOT try “to reconcile this tradition of gun ownership in this country, with some basic public safety concerns.”

Really, do ya’ think?

Obama's Ethereal Experience Vs. Palin's Reality Of Accomplishment

CraZy Pet Introduces Mini Bumble Ball Pet Toy. The Mini Bumble Ball Pet Toy is a patented interactive dog toy with a highly recognizable trademark. It jumps, it shakes, it wiggles, and it bumbles. Dogs go "crazy" trying to catch the zany, unpredictable and brightly colored "bumble ball" (Ctrl-Click photo to see video example of what a Bumble Ball does). Image Credit: Crazy Pets Products

Obama's Ethereal Experience Vs. Palin's Reality Of Accomplishment

This election cycle for President of the United States is really fun and is beginning to feel like a ride in a “Bumble Ball” (if riding in a Bumble Ball were possible).

Take the recent media reaction to Senator John McCain’s pick for Vice-President of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin – WOW.

All of the pundits on radio and television (especially cable news television) seem to be making arguments for or against the wisdom of any potential candidacy based upon past “Experience” while the real measure of anyone’s experience actually lies in the value of their “Accomplishment”.

Even Barack Obama doesn’t get it … when confronted with Sarah Palin’s years of experience in chief executive decision making office positions (on the city council as Mayor of a city and then as Governor of the State of Alaska) he sites as a comparison his function as the leader of the Barack Obama campaign for President of the United States.

This excerpted from CNN and the Anderson Cooper 360 show –

Anderson Cooper interviewed Barack Obama Monday

From CNN Political Producer Ed Hornick - September 1, 2008 - Posted: 07:10 PM ET

Barack Obama defended his experience in dealing with natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and took a swipe at newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

In an interview on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Monday night, Obama was asked about whether his experience in the U.S. Senate dealing with weather-related situations compares to Palin’s executive experience running the state of Alaska and as the small town mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

(YouTube type video of AC360 interview of Barack Obama by Anderson Cooper - Ctrl-Click photo to launch)

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

Our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the past couple of years and certainly in terms of the legislation I’ve passed in the past couple of years, post-Katrina.”

Reference Here>>

What is truly striking about the response and position that Barack Obama stakes out in his response to Anderson Cooper’s query is the depth of the ignorance that he has about the value of accomplishment in decision making a city manager and/or Mayor has in the lives of the people who actually live in a city or town … let alone a State – ANY State.

Banner graphic from the city of Wasilla website

Let’s examine for a minute the online Budget for 2005 published by and for the city of Wasilla, Alaska (Wasilla – for the Sarmatian god of the same name, see Wasilla (god)) – the city that Sarah Palin served for a period of two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council from 1992 to 1996, then won two terms as mayor of Wasilla from 1996 to 2002.

The city hall of Wasilla ... the one that pundit James Carville describes as looking like a "bait shop" in Louisiana. Image Credit: City of Wasilla website

It is not the amount of money that is managed, it is the 256 pages of description, on where the money comes from and how it is used to the betterment of the community this organization is formed to serve, that concerns itself with the issue of accomplishment.

So, where does the money come from and what community does the campaign for President of the United States does the Barack Obama for President organization serve?

Is there any infrastructure upon which people are able to fly an airplane, drive to the city for goods and services, get help in an accident, report a crime, prosecute a criminal, get married, get an education, and have the trash picked up long after decisions are made on how to use the municipalities collected tax money?

A political campaign organization asks for money to be donated so it can be spent on activities promoting the candidate, Barack Obama, himself.

The money is spent on cardboard signs, printed paper with gum/glue on the back so that the paper could be affixed to a car or telephone pole, video production services so that YouTube and Television ads can be made and promotional time can be bought to play them, leased jet airplanes so that the candidate and his staff can be flown anywhere/anytime foe events where the candidate can be heard and seen by people at a gathering … and more.

All of the investment of donated money and the effort it pays for is designed so that the candidate, Barack Obama, can put himself in a place where he can make decisions for the betterment of the community he wants to serve – a place he has never been before as a community organizer in Chicago, a senator in the state government of Illinois, and finally as the junior Senator for the state of Illinois in the United States Senate.

Sarah Palin has been in a place where her decisions resulted into accomplishment for the better part of 10 years in a city community environment and for the state community for two and a half years as she chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from 2003 to 2004 while also serving as Ethics Supervisor of the commission, and as the governor of Alaska, becoming the first woman and youngest person to hold the office.

Barack Obama really does not know what he doesn’t know and to prove this fact here are a couple of facts about the state of Alaska that Barack Obama would not and could not compare his political campaign to.

Alaska is a fairly large state economically, for example; the state ranks as #6 in Gross Domestic Product Per Capita on the list of all 50 states (behind Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and ahead of California in #7 – Illinois by comparison ranks #17)

This excerpted from Wikipedia (pretty easy to find) –

Shortly after becoming governor, Palin canceled a contract for the construction of an 11-mile (18 km) gravel road outside Juneau to a mine. This reversed a decision made in the closing days of the Murkowski administration.[70] She also followed through on a campaign promise to sell the Westwind II jet purchased (on a state government credit account, against the wishes of the Legislature) by the Murkowski administration for $2.7 million in 2005. In August 2007, the jet was sold on eBay for $2.1 million.[71]

In June 2007, Palin signed into law a $6.6 billion operating budget—the largest in Alaska's history.
[72] At the same time, she used her veto power to make the second-largest cuts of the construction budget in state history. The $237 million in cuts represented over 300 local projects, and reduced the construction budget to nearly $1.6 billion.[73]

In 2007, the Alaska Creamery Board recommended closing Matanuska Maid Dairy, an unprofitable state-owned business. Palin objected, citing concern for dairy farmers and a recent infusion of $600,000 in state money. Palin subsequently replaced the entire membership of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation.
[74] The new board reversed the decision to close the dairy. Later in 2007, the unprofitable business was put up for sale. No offers met the minimum bid of $3.35 million,[75][76] and the dairy was closed. In August 2008, the Anchorage plant was purchased for $1.5 million, the new minimum bid. The purchaser plans to convert it into heated storage units.[77]
Reference Here>>

So again, let’s look at the off-the-cuff comment and comparison by Barack Obama while he was interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN –

“My understanding is that Gov. Palin’s town, Wassilla, has I think 50 employees. We've got 2500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12 million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month,” Obama responded.

As Governor of Alaska for the last year, Sarah Palin ran the going concern that operated on an approved budget of 6.6 billion dollars, was the commander-and-chief Alaska’s National Guard, is aware on a daily basis the politics of Russia and Canada where the State of Alaska shares a border with both countries and the state and municipal government employ a total of 8,500 people to carry out the people’s business.

It is an insult to begin to compare the ethereal nature of experience to the reality of accomplishment an executive position in government begets.

What is even more odd is that the junior Senator from Illinois, who is running for the top executive governmental position in the United States, takes the time to compare himself in background and experience with the competitive choice for the back-up position for the same top executive governmental position.

I guess Sarah Palin said it best in her speech at the RNC Convention in St. Paul, MN when described what the job of a small town mayor was like --- "Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

The person at the top of the ticket choose right for the good of the country and with the choice of Sara Palin as his running mate, John McCain had this to say in his speech that closed the RNC Convention:

"Let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming."

The Democrats are scared folks; they are scared that Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden's “experience” does not stack up to Senator John McCain’s and Governor Sarah Palin’s accomplishments and with good reason.