Life is a State of Mind

The Obama campaign is running a negative campaign message on the internet. It is not the first, nor (likely) the last. Yet I see a very specific difference between the Obama campaign’s official messages and those of his opponents John McCain and Sarah Palin. His are factual and pertinent to the debate about wether his opponent is fit for the office being contested:

Yes, this message is ugly, messy, and very, very negative against Senator John McCain, but it is also factually true, accurate, and directly addresses a concern many people have about wether John McCain should be trusted with the power of the oval office. If McCain has a public record history of protecting criminals from justice, and making the public pay for the mistakes; is that not very important information we need to know and be reminded of before we vote?

Compare that, if you will, with Palin and McCain’s outright lies about Obama and Obama’s positions every morning on several different campaign ads in every television market where a competitive state makes running ads attractive. McCain has “approved this message” on so many false statements that we are questioning his integrity and ability to continue serving as a Senator. He has falsely claimed that Obama was trying to teach children about sex (Obama was trying to teach them about sex offenders, which is a big difference). He’s falsely claimed Obama would raise taxes (as much as I don’t like it, Obama is talking about Reagan-like tax cuts). In the Virginia TV market we get bombarded with these lies and misdirections every day. It is almost, but not quite as nauseating as the normal bombardment of crappy drug commercials for problems we don’t have.

Question is, will America notice the difference between negative and accurate and negative and deceptive? Obama is making a pretty big gamble that Americans are smart enough to figure it out. I pray he is correct.

The New Yorker has endorsed, and it is worth the read.

New Yorker Endorses Obama

They explain, in good detail why this election is so important, and why Obama is the man for the job.

It is very important that we replace the current congress with some fresh ideas, new attitudes, and a willingness to work with President Obama in the new government in order to get the change we need for our country and our world. That means targeting elected congress-critters who have been voting with the Bush administration, who are stopping the constructive process of government, and who are opposed by strong, progressive candidates who will serve the public well.

In most congressional elections, Virginia has very few choices to vote for by the general election. In years past many neanderthals have run unopposed for re-election or only been challenged by fringe candidates without a prayer of winning. This year (2008) is very, very different. There are Democrats running for every congressional seat (which is a first I think, for many years). Some are facing very difficult challenges; but several have a real shot this year because Americans are finally waking up to the lies of the modern Republican party.

I have already contributed a small donation to the Glenn Nye campaign to unseat Thelma Drake in the 2nd district. If you have not, and you are tired of Virginia being embarrassed by her antics; please contribute to Glenn Nye yourself.

I just now finally contributed to the Judy Feder campaign to unseat Frank Wolf (who is no friend of veterans) in my own district (10th). Please help unseat Wolf and get someone who will actually work for better health care into office. I also just contributed to the Anita Hartke campaign to unseat the horribly offensive and childish Eric Cantor in the 7th district. The 7th and the 10th are normally overwhelmingly conservative districts, but Wolf’s big spending habits and Cantor’s cry-baby antics have even die hard Republicans annoyed. We have a real shot at getting responsible public servants in office in both districts.

Perhaps the best shot we have of doing this in the state is the inspiring campaign of Tom Perriello to unseat Virgil Goode in the 5th district. Sadly when I went to contribute today, the Perriello campaign website could not SSL encrypt my transaction, so I did not contribute yet. It appears to be a small technical flaw that can be easily fixed so I hope it will be fixed and we can contribute soon. Please volunteer, donate, consider, and vote for these fine candidates I’ve linked to and watch Virginia become a moderate state again.

It’s highly entertaining to watch the childish melodrama exhibited by many of our elected congressional “leaders” and their equally childish counterparts in the financial markets. These people (the news pundits, the politicians, and the investors) should all grow some intestinal fortitude, slow down, take a breath, and think through the financial crisis and so-called bailout carefully.

Yes, the cost of doing nothing will likely be high; but so will the cost of rashly doing the wrong thing.

Tomorrow morning, no matter what the markets do, my partner will still kiss me goodbye on her way to work. My cats will still lovingly harass me until I get out of bed to feed them. The sun will still come up. I’ll still need to pass water and break my fast. Yes, my retirement portfolio is much smaller this morning than it was yesterday… in fact, I lost more than my gross annual salary in one day of market histrionics. A lot of people did. Take a breath, the good news is that our portfolios will recover in time.

Our congress has accidentally and for all the wrong reasons actually done the right thing. The revised bill that failed yesterday needed to fail. It was a bad bill for hundreds of reasons that people much smarter than me have detailed at length. The roll call of votes and the comments afterwards are not only entertaining because of the silly melodrama, but they also demonstrate that congress is aware there is a problem and it needs addressing. They’ll eventually follow the wiser members of the American public and come up with a reasonable plan without the gaping holes in the one that got rejected yesterday. It’s sad that the so called leadership is not leading, but sometimes leadership has to defer to others… and in this case I think a time out is a good thing.

A deal will happen, it may be smaller (or larger), but it will likely be a better deal and one that more people can vote for without fear of losing re-election. No need to panic. Keep an eye out for possible buying opportunities in the next week or so. Good luck, hug your friends and family, and keep it real.

Update: Full disclosure; I am not a market analyst nor a financial expert by any means. I am a UNIX Systems Administrator/Analyst, a living history hobbyist, a political activist, a scuba diver, and I study the Lotus Sutra. I read others, and because people are asking I will share some of my sources on this issue:

Barry Ritholtz
Mark Blacknell
Ben Tomhave
Andrew Sullivan has links to many different explainations
Even BoingBoing has had lucid and interesting information; which is not what I’d expect from an entertainment site, but I’ll take it
BoingBoing Bailout Pros and Cons
As John Gruber implies - it’s a rare day when I find Newt Gingrich making sense, and even Newt is/was calling for slow deliberation.

Update 2: Robert Reich thinks a scaled down version will get passed this week.

Update 3: it looks like the Federal Reserve has been quietly lending huge amounts of money to the banks since Monday to improve market liquidity; if that does not help the problem a lot, it will at least buy us some time. Hat tip to Vivian Paige for catching this and pointing out.

Senator John McCain is telling lies for personal gain. That shows a lack of integrity. Integrity is the most crucial moral characteristic that every holder of high office must have. Clearly demonstrating a lack of integrity means that not only should McCain be disqualified from running for President, he should also be forced to resign his position as Senator. McCain is no longer acceptable in national service now, no matter what services he rendered in the past.

Add to the blatant lies, the demonstrated lack of good judgement, the willingness to exploit loopholes in the very campaign finance reform laws he helped create, and his penchant for being reactionary rather than careful about our nations security; and we have a recipe for disaster should he become the next President of the United States.

John McCain is unacceptable to veterans; he has voted against veterans and campaigned against veterans benefits until it became politically untenable. He is no friend of veterans.

John McCain will make the United States and it’s citizens less secure. His temper, his knee-jerk reactions, his inability to grasp basic nuances of foreign affairs will lead him into blunder after blunder and risk war, offending our allies, and violating our trade deals. He will be, and this is difficult to imagine, even worse than George W. Bush (who is the worst President so far).

Wake up American voters. Think for a few minutes and take the time to understand the issues and the urgent need for change. Understand how horribly unbalanced the United States Supreme Court already is.

If you don’t like the way I express this, try Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall, Stephen Retherford, or Juan Cole:

talkingpointsmemo.com

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish

hoosierinva.blogspot.com

juancole.com

All four of these gentlemen brilliant analysts of politics and civics; we have to do something fast.

This is just too freaking funny to be missed:

Tax Cuts Help Porn Industry

It brings a whole new meaning to the words “Economic Stimulus Package” doesn’t it?
Ruins my plan to invest it all in European companies and the Obama campaign, but it’s still kind of fun to imagine the heads of the Christianists exploding as they find out.

Hat tip to AMERICAblog for this excellent video, in short; Clinton and McCain are the pots calling the kettle black here:

Obama’s response is to tell it like it really is:

So the interesting question is can millions of social issues voters wake up and see that in 28 years the so-called social issues party has done nothing for them on social issues while stealing from the middle class to fatten the rich?

Update: This has to be the funniest post ever on the whole “bitter” non-issue:
http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003790.html

Some friends and I are concerned about some element of this being insensitive, perhaps the day-laborer stereotype; but I think that helps convey the point, and it adds irony in a sadistic way that the only person secure in their job is willing to work as a driver, and that says something about our Walmart and fast-food service industry (pretty much the only segment hiring like mad).

I also just got my notice from Prince William County that my house has lost over 20% of it’s assessed value from 2006 to 2007… I suspect these apparently unrelated points are actually closely tied.

Are Gas and Oil prices high? Or, is it just that the U.S. dollar is losing value?

A joke going around the internet today is “Behold the new U.S. $3 bill: - and it has a picture of a 2 Euro coin… sort of brings an interesting point home.

I heard a story on All Things Considered (NPR) about David Swensen at Yale. Apparently David Swensen manages Yale’s investments for it’s endowment fund, and he’s been doing an incredible job of it for over 20 years. He has some pretty sound and practical advice for investors up on the NPR website and a book called “Unconventional Success” for people interested in investing.