During the summer before the 2006 midterm elections I was a teller at a bank in St. Paul, MN.  I would frequently cash checks from the Minnesota Republican Party for individuals with out of state driver's licenses.

After a few weeks, I actually asked one of the people cashing those checks what they were for.  He opened up and dished everything: the MN Republican Party was hiring recovering addicts at the nearby Hazelden Rehab Center to make campaign calls.  I asked the fellow if he was a Republican himself and he said that he was not, he was just working for a check. 

Over the rest of the summer, I was told the same thing by several other customers at the bank cashing their Republican Party checks. 

So, as it would seem, the people making calls for the GOP aren't necessarily buying the same crap that they're selling. 

     - The Captain

Over the last year, crude oil has spiked to record prices because of oil speculation and investors looking for a commodity to beat the market.  Even Fox News thought so.  But luckily, investors seemed to have realized that the jig was up, and the price of crude oil has been slowly settling back down.  
Unfortunately, it would seem that in the midst of this economic crises investors have lost their heads, and after screwing us with $4.50/gallon gas, rogering us something special to the tune of almost a trillion dollars this last week, they've decided to really pound the country in the rear with their latest knee jerk reaction: driving the price of oil back up!
According to the New York Times, investors are seeking a safe haven from the stock market and have taken to reinvesting in crude oil.  Today, crude oil prices shot up from just over $100/barrel to $130/barrel and then dropped ten dollars a barrel to settle at $120/barrel... the largest one day increase in the price of crude oil ever.  
In the last two days, the price of crude oil has increased by $29/barrel.  

From the New York Times:

Senator John McCain's campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.
“The value that he brought to the relationship was the closeness to Senator McCain and the possibility that Senator McCain was going to run for president again,” said Robert McCarson, a former spokesman for Fannie Mae, who said that while he worked there from 2000 to 2002, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together paid Mr. Davis’s firm $35,000 a month. Mr. Davis “didn’t really do anything,” Mr. McCarson, a Democrat, said.

This is more damning than any former lobbying working on a campaign that we've heard about thus far.  This is a campaign manager, who for FIVE YEARS was PAID FOR ACCESS TO A CANDIDATE.  Rick Davis didn't lobby in the traditional way, he was paid to whisper words of deregulation directly into John McCain's ear.  The mainstream media might not give this much newstime, but in The Captain's opinion, it should be in the headlines and live on in editorials till election day.  
     -The Captain       www.MissionExposition.com

We're all used to this story by now: McCain finds his own flaw, then tries to transpose it on Obama.

Lately, McCain has been hitting Obama for taking money from employees and directors from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is true. However, John McCain received 10x as much! According to CNN:

The New York Times has published a separate list looking at contributions from "directors, officers, and lobbyists for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" for the 2008 campaign cycle. That list — using figures from the Federal Election Commission — shows McCain receiving $169,000, while Obama received only $16,000.

The Captain got this one in an e-mail from his mother. It makes some brilliant points about how far we as a nation still have to go:

Sep 13, 2008 By Tim Wise
Tim Wise's ZSpace Page / ZSpace

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

...

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

...

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

...

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.

David Ignatius at the Washington Post has made a very interesting observation:

McCain even seems to have forgotten what saved his greatest legislative achievement, which is campaign finance reform. When he was asked during the Saddleback Church debate which Supreme Court justices he would not have nominated, he named Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens. It happens that those are four of the five justices who voted in 2003 to uphold the McCain-Feingold law.

John McCain has promised America that he would only nominate Supreme Court justices of the variety that consider his legislation unconstitutional. The only reasons that McCain would say such a thing are:
1. He's lying... again, and is just trying to pander to the most conservative of voters; or
2. John McCain likes passing legislation that he thinks will subvert the Constitution.

Which one is it John McCain?

Both Senators Obama and McCain will attend a national service forum this evening. As CNN reports:

The forum is part of a two-day summit meant to promote national service. Nearly 500 leaders from business, foundations, universities and politics are meeting to "celebrate the power and potential of citizen service" and lay out a plan to address "America's greatest social challenges through expanded opportunities for volunteer and national service," according to the organizers' Web site.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Palin knocked community organizing as not having any actual responsibilities. Today, Sen. McCain attended a forum to "celebrate the power of citizen service."  Someone should ask the McCain-Palin campaign if it has officially reversed it's position on community service and organizing.

Just a point of curiosity:

Remember when we all had that discussion about why Hillary Clinton was "Hillary" instead of "Senator Clinton"? 

She was Hillary to both Democrats and Republicans.  If I recall properly, there was much talk about her being referred to by her first name because she was a female.  If that analysis is true, and I'm not necessarily advocating that it was, then why is Sarah Palin "Governor Palin" or just "Palin"? 

Where's "Sarah," aside from inside Dick Cheney's undisclosed location? 

     -- The Captain
         www.MissionExposition.com

After calling Gov. Palin out for pumping up her "conservative credentials" with a whole lotta hot air, ABC's John Tapper points out that in 2001 and 2002, John McCain himself called three of the earmarks that Palin supported as Mayor, "objectionable." 

Why can't the MSM put that up as a headline, instead of copying and pasting the McCain-Palin campaign's continual abuses of the truth?

To extend the MSM some credit, if she were allowed to speak with them, they might actually ask her for some clarification.  Maybe this is why Palin is in hiding. 

Tonight in McCain's speech he said, "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." 

How much do you want to bet that folks like Sean Hannity DON'T jump all over that one the way they did when Michelle Obama made a similar remark.  I don't believe that McCain's words should be construed to say that there was a time that he didn't love America, I think it's cheap.  But I don't think it's any less cheap than what they did to Michelle Obama. 

Hacks.




Seriously though, if this post doesn't work, I'm giving up.

Tonight in McCain's speech he said, "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." 

How much do you want to bet that folks like Sean Hannity DON'T jump all over that one the way they did when Michelle Obama made a similar remark.  I don't believe that McCain's words should be construed to say that there was a time that he didn't love America, I think it's cheap.  But I don't think it's any less cheap than what they did to Michelle Obama. 

Hacks.



Sorry if this is a duplicate post, I'm having a heck of a time submitting it.

Tonight in McCain's speech he said, "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." 
How much do you want to bet that folks like Sean Hannity DON'T jump all over that one the way they did when Michelle Obama made a similar remark.  I don't believe that McCain's words should be construed to say that there was a time that he didn't love America, I think it's cheap.  But I don't think it's any less cheap than what they did to Michelle Obama. 
Hacks. 



Sorry if this is a duplicate post, I've had trouble uploading. 

Tonight in McCain's speech he said, "I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's." 

How much do you want to bet that folks like Sean Hannity DON'T jump all over that one the way they did when Michelle Obama made a similar remark.  I don't believe that McCain's words should be construed to say that there was a time that he didn't love America, I think it's cheap.  But I don't think it's any less cheap than what they did to Michelle Obama. 

Hacks. 

Apparently John McCain is so into change that he's decided to recycle John Kerry's 2004 campaign slogan.