There is a book that I have been reading that I thought those of us on the DNC website would find interesting. It is titled "Confessions of an economic hit man" by John Perkins. I thought it was very interesting given the current economic situation as well as Bush's focus on Iraq instead of Osama Bin Laden. Although the book was published in 2004, I find it very eye opening and, quite honestly, disturbing.

From an abstract:

The Hit Brigade
An invisible army of highly-paid Economic Hit Men (EHMs) marches with every single economic delegation and every bilateral state visit. Its members are disguised as analysts and statisticians, but they use sophisticated methods to cheat companies around the globe out of vast sums of money. They provide the arguments and calculations for expensive, complex projects that developing nations cannot afford. Then, their optimistic economic forecasts encourage the World Bank and other institutions to grant the credit needed. The economic hit men will do anything to accomplish their ends, but when they fail, more nefarious, shadowy "CIA-sanctioned jackals" step in, wielding violent coups and "accidents." For example, two national leaders "Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama" died in fiery crashes, which were mostly likely jackal assassinations. Sometimes the jackals fail, too. Then young Americans become the marchers, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.   Read More »

Thanks all!!

And more states are to come.

There should be transparency regarding voting machines. The machines should be created and tested by a bi-partisan team. Any tampering should be prosecuted and punished severely. Tampering with an election is treason in my eyes.

Am I being too harsh?

I just saw on MSNBC that the newest ballot in Palm Beach county is now a confusing block shaped arrow that needs to be connected in order for the vote to count. Sorry I don't have an image.

This seems deliberate to me when almost all the other counties have a simple checkbox.

According to Benjamin Jealous, the President & CEO of the NAACP, in a small county in North Carolina placed a casket outside a polling station to influence voters. The story here: Link

This story was also aired on hardball.

Watching Chris Matthews one would get the sense the election is over. I hope he counters some of the republican rhetoric I've heard on his show today. This thing isn't over yet.

We need to play hardball up until the end.

It seems like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'm still hearing that argument regarding trickle down, but in a new fashion. Now the republicans are calling the bottom up approach "spreading the wealth". The reality is the democratic approach is really the idea of creating a strong consumer base.

Why doesn't trickle down work? Because more companies making billions of dollars do not always create jobs locally. Oil companies, telecoms, and many companies in the service sector are not creating jobs locally because of tax relief. Oil companies could create jobs now with current profits while telecoms are focusing on emerging overseas markets. Service sectors (such as software), which also make up more than half of the GDP, are hiring people overseas as well.

But when the tax savings are spread to lower and middle income people, that money gets put back into the economy through consumer spending.

Republicans still don't see that for businesses to do well they need a strong consumer base. The global economy will just make the effects from trickle down even worse by sending value created locally overseas.

Finally, I also hear the argument that the republican theory creates more income than the democratic theory. That maybe so, but it's not about "how much", but rather "how it is spent". If getting more is better, why have all republican presidents in the last 30 years created huge deficits and national debt?

Here is a consolidated list of McCain's associations if anyone is interested: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8992

I think the media should exploit the association of McCain and Gordon Liddy. Maybe it would help put him on the defensive and mute some of this nasty rhetoric they're spouting against Obama.

Article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-bernstein/ayers-and-the-mccain-g-go_b_134256.html

On Letterman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGdL1K46Hc

I wanted to make a point here just to ensure people are all on the same page.

I was watching Bill Maur last night and when I heard the argument from a Republican guest that patriots rose up against taxes by dumping the tea from a British ship (owned by the East India Company) in the Boston harbor in what is known as the Boston tea party.

This is a misconception. Colonists did not rise up solely against taxes. They did, however, rise up against excessive taxes in which someone like John Adams, then an attorney, could not keep stores in his family's cupboard. But moreover, colonists rose up against taxation without representation. Most colonists were not considered English citizens and lacked direct representation in the English mainland. For this reason they believed that the taxes imposed on them were illegal. This is a big point I would like those that cry foul on every tax that is imposed to understand.

Taxes, in general, are a necessity and America was not founded on the idea of no taxes, but rather, "No taxes without representation".

The bill obviously failed today and the Republicans are blaming Pelosi. This is ridiculous. Her speach may have been out of line, but you either agree with the bill or you don't. The republicans need to stop acting like children. Vote on the bill, not Pelosi's speach.

It concerns me that the current proposal by Bernanke and Paulson could actually be an attempt to complete the passage of the previous S.190 bill that failed in 2005 that republicans blame on Chris Dodd's veto. Moreover, this bill was killed by Republicans as well and the senate was controlled by a Republican majority at the time.

The republicans like to tout their support for the S.190 bill, but in reality it called for dismantling (within 180 days passage) 2 government oversight committees (The OFHEO and the Federal Housing Finance Board) and replacing them with a corporation, in effect, privatizing oversight of banking institutions such as Fannie May and Freddie Mac. Furthermore, a director, appointed by the president, would have sole power and decision making authority. This director would have the solitary power that is currently given to many.

I only hope that we do not make a rash decision that does not resolve our current crisis. Here is a link to the actual S.190 bill text: The S190 bill.