Ok, so I haven’t written about politics in a while (have I?) as the current state of everything seems to be speaking volumes for itself. However, several (ok a lot) of the people I follow on twitter were going on and on and on last night and even this morning about Demon Sheep. I had to find out what was up, so I googled it this morning.

Imagine my surprise when I came across a youtube video (you can see it below) of some sheep, and a guy name Tom Campbell from California. The ad itself was apparently put out by the Carly Fiorina campaign in an effort to offend sheep. Why else would the sheep who rose on the pedistial fall so far amidst the storm? Also, whats with the creepy guy dressed like a sheep? Did california loosen their laws regarding animal love?

Its hard to imagine that those responsible on the campaign sat around a table and came up with this ad and NO ONE had the guts to say “hey, this ad sucks” or even, “maybe we want to rethink this ad”. It certainly isn’t the kind of ad I would want my candidate to run, nor would I support anyone who ran this ad. Unfortunately, the press Fiorina has received from the Demon Sheep has been nothing but bad for her so far as even hard core conservatives are mocking the Demon Sheep…

Check the ad out and let me know what you think….

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I received this in an email and it was too good NOT to post…

If George W.. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed, to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan’s holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W.. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador, when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had misspelled the word “advice” would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had created the position for 32 or more  Czars, who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had spent more than all the Presidents combined since George Washington, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive?

Can’t think of anything?

Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 10 months — so you’ll have 3 years and 2 months to come up with an answer.

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For those among you who have more money than you will ever need, save your
time and delete this email.

For the rest of us who are still working with mortgages, children and grandchildren or retired living on a pension and or Social Security perhaps you will take a couple of minutes to read the proposed changes in the American tax system.

Sharing this email with others can make a difference on November 4, 2008; for our citizens and our country.

INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES

This is something you should be aware of so you don’t get blind-sided. This is really going to catch a lot of families off guard. It should make you worry.

Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election:

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

MCCAIN
0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples) McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA
28% on profit from ALL home sales

How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.

DIVIDEND TAX

MCCAIN 15% (no change)

OBAMA 39.6%

How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama become president. The experts predict that higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.

INCOME TAX (OBAMA CLAIMS NO INCREASE IN TAXES….. AFTER BUSH CUTS ARE ELIMINATED!)

MCCAIN (no changes)

• Single making 30K – tax $4,500
• Single making 50K – tax $12,500
• Single making 75K – tax $18,750
• Married making 60K- tax $9,000
• Married making 75K – tax $18,750
• Married making 125K – tax $31,250

OBAMA
(Reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)

• Single making 30K – tax $8,400
• Single making 50K – tax $14,000
• Single making 75K – tax $23,250
• Married making 60K – tax $16,800
• Married making 75K – tax $21,000
• Married making 125K – tax $38,750

Under Obama your taxes will more than double! How does this affect you? No explanation needed. This is pretty straight forward.

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)

OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax

How does this affect you? Many families have lost businesses, farms and ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will not only lose them to these taxes.

NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA

• New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet
• New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren’t high enough already)
• New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
• New taxes on retirement accounts and last but not least….
• New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level
  of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

Thank You

Ed note This was passed to me in an email and was written by a VP level person with one of the larger investment firms….

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In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know there was a debate on TV last night. If you want to watch it in its full glory, RealClearPolitics.com has the video as do a number of news outlets but let me give you some high lights. They spent the first half hour or so of this First debate talking about the Economy and the current situation. Both candidates seem to be where they were at the beginning of the week… which is almost nowhere, on this issue and the bail out. Obama wants to cover more people then necessary with the plan and McCain hopes he can sign something. Personally, I think its a bunch of poo either way you look at it. I shouldn’t be paying for someone else’s mistakes. Its not right.

After that the discourse moved to Foreign Policy and while McCain did pretty good (it is after all his forte) Obama wasn’t too bad at reciting the lines that had been prepared for him. McCain actually seemed to be more off the cuff than Professor Obama did at times and he appeared calmer than one would expect while the Great One appeared to be on the defensive most of the time and was seemingly flustered for most of the debate.

Of course, I don’t think that agreeing with Sen. McCain so often during a debate where you need to show your differences was a good plan of attack. There wasn’t even a hint of sarcasm in his agreement. Someone needs to revisit the chapter on proper debating.

In all, I wasn’t too impressed with either candidate, its a shame that Bob Barr or Ralph Nader weren’t invited, I think they could have livened things up (especially with the way Barr refers to himself in the third person). It was fun watching the feeds on Twitter (a remarkably liberal community) though and I think this weeks Upcoming VEEp debate is going to be more fun.

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Who ever said that double standards do not exist in politics was not talking about American Politics. Sure, each side seems to have their fair share of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” however, none seem to be as obvious as the double standards this years democratic field wields. In part, this blatantly obvious in the media’s coverage of the Obama/Biden ticket in comparison to the McCain/Palin ticket. The disdain the media displays towards anything non-obama is absolutely mind numbing. However, even the candidate’s own spin on issues seems to be a huge double standard.

For instance, the current claims by Obama paint McCain to be against government reform and regulation of the financial industry when in fact The EXACT OPPOSITE is true. In 2005, McCain authored a bill calling for the Reform and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (what fun names!). A bill that the Democrats called ridiculous. In fact, had the congress acted on McCain’s bill three years ago, then a large part of this down turn may have been prevented (or at least it wouldn’t be as bad as it appears to be today). Instead they did the opposite. The Democratically controlled House called for less regulation and urged lenders to make loans to people they knew could not afford to pay them off.

In large part, this current economic downturn is due to the Democrats in congress who think its a RIGHT for a person with less then adequate means to own a house. Now they’re trying to blame this on McCain and the GOP when its a largely liberal problem. Rep Barney Frank tried passing the blame to the GOP when its clearly not the GOP’s fault at all. Talk about double standards.

Another nice double standard took place at the end of last week when Rep Charles Rangle from NY called Gov. Palin disabled. Of course, the Honorable(?) Rep from NY is claiming thats not really what he meant, but come on. Really?? He’s also facing heat from the right side of the aisle for owing back taxes (whats the point in being a congressman if you have to pay taxes right??) and some other minor infringements that would have had a republican crucified by this point.

Given all the double talk and standards that the Democratic leadership like to play with, its no wonder that they’ve managed to screw the pooch on their control of the house in the two years they’ve been there and have garnered an approval rating lower than the current President’s. Something that should have been pretty hard to do…

edit: I came across two good articles today I wanted to share, one about Palin and Obama—What Really is Wisdom? @ Realclearpolitics and the other is about Is Obama Another Dukakis? at the Slate. Both are good reads!

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@N00" align="left"> Next up in the race to be the next leader of the Not So Free World is Michigan. The polls opened in MI today to a somewhat limited Democratic side (the DNC is punishing MI for moving their primary by taking all of their delegates away) with only Clinton listed on the ballot there while the GOP has a full slate of contenders (though, Thompson, Guliani and Paul are visibly lacking in the state) listed. Mit Romney is looking to gain some ground here as many have guessed that another second or third place finish in the motor state would leave him questioning whether or not he wants to continue.

Its interesting that by now, the Democratic side is almost paired down to the final three, while the GOP hopefuls are looking past what has happened to states with later primaries to gain ground (Thompson is looking to the Carolinas and most of the south, while guliani is looking to Florida and some of the other red states). It definately proves how split the republican party is going in to this election and I think if Ron Paul were smart, he’d drop out of the GOP race and focus on gaining a third party nomination. Of course whether or not he could do anything with that nomination would be a stretch.

The only thing I know for sure is that the American people have not found one consistant leader from either party to put their faith behind. If the election were today, and you had to vote for one of the six leaders, who could you vote for with out feeling the need to go in to a drug treatment program??

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@N05" align="left"> I’ve found the pres/vp combo that I’d vote for in heartbeat if only it would happen in real life. Mike Huckabee (the GOP candidate who currently has my support) was on The Colbert Report again last night and he reaffirmed his plan to make Steven his VP if he gets the nomination. While I’m sure its little more than a publicity stunt, I honestly think it’d be good for the country to have someone in office like Colbert who doesn’t seem to take the whole process too seriously (remember his bid in South Carolina?).

Of course if elected, I bet we see a huge rush on addiction treatment centers as people try to figure out if its all just a bad drug induced dream or not.

Would you vote for a Huckabee/Colbert ticket??

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@N00" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1221/1053173548_bbe8433414_t.jpg" align="left"> 12:01 am on January 8th, 2007, New Hampshire was the first state to hold an official Primary in the presidential season. Sure, Iowa had their caucuses last week, but come on, standing in a corner is hardly the way to pick the future president of the country is it? New Hampshire is generally the first official primary in the country (its been that way by tradition since 1920 and by state law since the 70’s, though I don’t see how a state can decide its going to be first. Thats like the last place qualifier at a nascar event deciding to take the choice poll position).

Its not that important of a primary as far as delegates go (come on, this ISNew Hampshire we’re talking about) but the important part of the NH primary is the media exposure that a candidate gets from the event. Most sub-third place finishers will most likely begin their exit after today’s primary while the two or three main players in either party may fight for more of their life. If Obama can finish strong here beating out Clinton (or even if Hillary looses to John Edwards), the Clinton camp will either have to ramp up their fight for super tuesday or take a good look at their strategy and decide to go home. Its seldom that a candidate looses the party’s nomination after taking both Iowa and New Hampshire (and another loss here would take a lot of wind out of HRC’s sails).

On the Right side of the aisle, if McCain can stage a coup and come out ahead of Romney, then the Mittster will have to step his game up a tad as well as he would have suffered two early losses in Key states. Same for Rudy. Fred isn’t expecting to do well until he hits the southern half of the country, but more than anything, I think I’d like to see him drop out and endorse Huckabee who could do well with anything above a third place finish in the Granite state.

All in all its going to be an exciting day. By the way, if you’re in Georgia and you did not register to vote before Yesterday, you’re out of luck for the Primary coming up in February.

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Its always interesting when someone crosses party lines to side with the enemy. Independent Senator, Joe Lieberman has come out endorsing John McCain as the only one who can “break through the partisanship that is poisoning our politics today and stopping us from getting anything done in Washington.” An interesting twist for one who has seemingly broken almost all the rules of modern politics.

Lieberman has drawn some fire from the Democratic Leadership, however there’s little they can do if they’d like to keep his votes on their side of the aisle (especially since very few votes separate the two parties in the Senate). I do have to admit, I’m a little surprised myself, that the liberal from New England is supporting the Conservative from Arizona. It could almost be a story line in an episode of the “Odd Couple” but I wouldn’t expect to see the two of them out shopping for platform beds any time soon (wouldn’t that be a pretty headline??).

Elsewhere in the GOP, Huckabee is drawing more fire as he continues to rise in the polls, which brings to mind the question of whether or not bad press is better than no press at all and Ron Paul reportedly raises 6 million in contributions over the weekend in an online ron paul lovefest. I seriously hope that Paul realizes what effect he could have on the race if he runs as a third party and decides not to. It would make sense for the GOP nomoniee to have him on the short list of running mates, though Eric seems to think that would be suicide for the ticket.

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