I Just Voted for Barack H. Obama!

I just stood in line for nearly FOUR hours, here in Dekalb County, GA to vote for Barack Hussein Obama and Joe Biden.

I feel good.

Fact-Checking the VP Debate

Joe Biden and Sarah Palin Vice Presidential Debate

As with any presidential campaign, lies and half-truths flow freely. The following is from wire.factcheck.org. The guys over there have done a real job of “Keeping them Honest,” throughout the entire Election.

Some highlights:

Killing Afghan Civilians?

Palin said that Obama had accused American troops of doing nothing but killing civilians, a claim she called “reckless” and “untrue.”

Obama did say that troops in Afghanistan were killing civilians. Here’s the whole quote, from a campaign stop in New Hampshire:

The Associated Press fact-checked this one, and found that in fact U.S troops were killing more civilians at the time than insurgents: “As of Aug. 1, the AP count shows that while militants killed 231 civilians in attacks in 2007, Western forces killed 286. Another 20 were killed in crossfire that can’t be attributed to one party.” Afghan President Hamid Karzai had expressed concern about these civilian killings, a concern President Bush said he shared.

Whether Obama said that this was “all we’re doing” is debatable. He said that we need to have enough troops so that we’re “not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians,” but did not say that troops are doing nothing else.

McCain in the Vanguard of Mortgage Reform?

Palin said that McCain had sounded the alarm on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago.

Palin is referring to a bill that would have increased oversight on Fannie and Freddie. In our recent article about assigning blame for the crisis, we found that by the time McCain added his name to the bill as a cosponsor, the collapse was well underway. Home prices began falling only two months later. Our colleagues at PolitiFact also questioned this claim.

Palin’s Health Care Hooey

Palin claimed that McCain’s health care plan would be “budget-neutral,” costing the government nothing.

The McCain campaign hasn’t released an estimate of how much the plan would cost, but independent experts contradict Palin’s claim of a cost-free program.

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates that McCain’s plan, which at its peak would cover 5 million of the uninsured, would increase the deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years. Obama’s plan, which would cover 34 million of the uninsured, would cost $1.6 trillion over that time period.

The nonpartisan U.S. Budget Watch’s fiscal voter guide estimates that McCain’s tax credit would increase the deficit by somewhere between $288 billion to $364 billion by the year 2013, and that making employer health benefits taxable would bring in between $201 billion to $274 billion in revenue. That nets out to a shortfall of somewhere between $14 billion to $163 billion – for that year alone.

Palin also said that Obama’s plan would be “universal government run” health care and that health care would be “taken over by the feds.” That’s not the case at all. As we’ve said before, Obama’s plan would not replace or remove private insurance, or require people to enroll in a public plan. It would increase the offerings of publicly funded health care.

Did McCain “vote the same way” as Obama on funding troops? This correction by Factcheck.org answers that question.

Correction Oct 3: This article originally faulted Biden for saying that McCain had voted “the exact same way” as Obama on a controversial troop funding bill. We said that McCain was absent for the vote and so didn’t vote at all. Biden was, however, correct.

McCain did vote against the troop-funding bill in question, H.R. 1591, on March 29, 2007, when it originally cleared the Senate. The vote to which we referred, and which McCain missed, was a later vote on the House-Senate compromise version of the same bill, on April 26, 2007. McCain opposed the bill, which Obama supported, because it contained language calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Biden was responding to Palin’s accusation that “Obama voted against funding troops.” Obama voted for the bill March 29 and April 26, and then on May 24, 2007, following a veto by President Bush, Obama voted against a similar troop-funding bill, H.R. 2206, that lacked any withdrawal language.

To read more facts on the topics that the Vice Presidential candidates discussed Thursday night, check out wire.factcheck.org and PolitiFact.org.

A few other misleads of note:

Palin said, “We’re circulating about $700 billion a year into foreign countries” for imported oil, repeating an outdated figure often used by McCain. At oil prices current as of Sept. 30, imports are running at a rate of about $493 billion per year.

Palin threw out an old canard when she criticized Obama for voting for the 2005 energy bill and said, “that’s what gave those oil companies those big tax breaks.” It’s a false attack Sen. Hillary Clinton used against Obama in the primary, and McCain himself has hurled. It’s true that the bill gave some tax breaks to oil companies, but it also took away others. And according to the Congressional Research Service, the bill created a slight net increase in taxes for the oil industry.

Palin repeated a falsehood that the McCain campaign has peddled, off and on, for some time; that under Obama “millions of small businesses” will pay high taxes. As we reported June 23, it’s simply untrue that “millions” of small business owners will pay higher federal income taxes under Obama’s proposal.

Palin: We need to look back, even two years ago, and we need to be appreciative of John McCain’s call for reform with Fannie Mae, with Freddie Mac, with the mortgage-lenders, too, who were starting to really kind of rear that head of abuse.

Does Folksy REALLY work for you?

Sarah Palin

I was born, and spent most of my childhood, in a small town. When I was twelve years old, my family picked up and moved to the big city of Atlanta. From one southern state to another, that hospitality was something that was never lost. I still smile at strangers when I walk down the street. Wave at my neighbors as I drive through my subdivision. Guest are still offered something cold to drink, something to eat. While others from bigger cities may scoff at this, one thing we from the south will always be known for is a hospitality that is genuine and meaningful.

But here’s the thing… There is quite a fine line between that genuine graciousness and the quite disingenuous nature of what we saw displayed on stage, by Governor Palin, last night.

Leading up to last nights debate, I had the opportunity to see several clips from Palin’s previous debates; and for a moment I thought perhaps that that would be the Palin that would show up last night. Not that I heard anything riveting during any of those performances… but the “folksiness” was kept to an absolute minimum. Why the drastic change of persona over the last couple of years? Is it that she doesn’t think she can speak to Americans, as a whole, as if we have more than two braincells to rub together? The only time I speak in the manner that she spoke to us last night is when I am playing with my 9 month old nephew. Being talked to as if I am an infant, or at best, a toddler is not something that I would calling “endearing.”

Didn’t we, as Americans, learn our lesson last go around with Bush? That wanting to have a beer and pizza with the president (or in this case, vice president) isn’t a qualifying factor? That it simply cannot be the barometer by which we measure presidential competency? It’s as if many of us are allergic to those who are intelligent. How else can you justify smearing someone for being a Harvard Law grad, while praising someone who took years to find a major, after changing schools three or four times? Yes, that may make her “normal” and “just like many other Americans,” but is that what we really want in someone who has to deal with the complexities of being one of the leaders, if not the leader, of the “Free World?”

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

I know that the Obama/Biden ticket has been trying to draw comparison between the Bush/Cheney Administration, and what a McCain/Palin Administration would look like, but after last night, never before has the similarities been so glaringly obvious. A (potential) vice president that has their own interpretation of the constitution? Where have we seen that before?

Palin made an attempt to further explain her position on the constitution and the role of the vice president today on FoxNews:

Incoherent? Maybe. Unnerving? Definitely.

Obama and the FM’s: Corrections

Relevant corrections appear at the end of the original entry.

This entry has been inspired by a comment that I received from a McCain supporter. I like to try to deal in fact as much as possible. Supporters on both sides are subject to being deceived by campaigns stretching the truth, cherry picking information and at times, even out right lying.

Jen C left an “impassioned” response to my blog regarding Republicans Turning on McCain. It wasn’t MY blog, but a blog supplied by The Huffington Post (yes yes, that horrible Liberal Rag!) I somehow doubt that she actually READ the article, but c’est la vie!

The icing on the cake from Jen’s response was a link to YouTube that she left of Obama “confessing” to being Muslim. ::rolls eyes:: Now, one would think that I wouldn’t waste time with such drivel, but it does give me the opportunity to highlight more lies from the McCain Camp.

As such I am led to the following…

As supplied by FactCheck:

McCain’s allegation about Obama’s contributions from the FMs is not true. As we’ve said many times, it’s illegal for candidates to accept contributions directly from corporations. But the FEC does keep track of the employers of individuals who give at least $200 to candidates. And according to the respected nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2008 election cycle Barack Obama has received $18,150 from employees of Freddie Mac. CRP does not list any Obama contributions from Fannie Mae.

Let’s not stop there:

But Obama is not No. 2 on the list of those getting contributions from the two companies, as McCain said. In fact, he ranks fourth in combined contributions, trailing Sen. Christopher Dodd, Rep. Melissa Bean and Sen. Lamar Alexander. McCain also neglects to mention his own $9,500 from Freddie Mac.

Somehow, I doubt that the John McCain supporters have a problem with McCain also receiving money from employees of Freddie Mac. Let’s call this one of those “educated guesses.”

Furthermore:

Obama is second on the list of those getting contributions from employees of only Freddie Mac. But, seriously, neither candidate’s number really makes much difference. Obama has raised more than $389.4 million in the 2008 election cycle. That makes his combined contributions from the FMs work out to roughly 0.005 percent of his total contributions.

Know what is even more of a hoot??

And McCain has raised about $174.2 million, making his combined FM contributions work out to … 0.005 percent.

Oh and as far as his other ties to the FM’s?

On June 4, Obama announced that Caroline Kennedy, Eric Holder and Jim Johnson would head his VP search committee. Kennedy, of course, is the daughter of JFK. Holder was Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general. Johnson remained on Obama’s committee for just a week. He resigned on June 11, amid allegations that Johnson received preferential treatment from Countrywide Financial Corp.

But Johnson wasn’t the current CEO of Fannie Mae, as you might think from listening to McCain. He left nine years ago, in 1999.

Source: http://wire.factcheck.org/2008/09/18/freddie-fannie-and-barack/

I, of course, respect voters decision to support John McCain, but before running with every little thing he says, they may want to verify it first. He’s been known to lie.

In the interest of fairness and keeping voters informed: Obama’s Lies.

________________________________________________________________

Source: http://wire.factcheck.org/2008/09/19/freddie-fannie-and-barack-%e2%80%94-corrected/

Turns out, our initial post “Freddie, Fannie and Barack” was erroneous. We’ve struck out the incorrect sections from our earlier post.

We said originally that Obama was the fourth largest recipient of donations from troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That’s wrong. Our post was drawn from data from the Center for Responsive Politics’ Web site, OpenSecrets.org. But the data we used were incomplete.

We talked to a spokesperson from the Center for Responsive Politics who told us that looking at all election cycles since 1989 (the first year for which CRP has data), Barack Obama is in fact the second-largest recipient of contributions from employees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, their unemployed spouses and dependent children and both of the FMs’ political action committees.

According to CRP, Obama’s total contributions from the FMs work out to $126,349. Of that sum, $6,000 comes from the FMs’ political action committees, and the rest from individuals who work for one of the two companies. Obama’s FM contributions account for about 0.03 percent of his total contributions to date. McCain’s FM haul is a smaller $21,550, all from individuals. That’s about 0.01 percent of his total contributions. We stand by our doubts that either candidate will be much swayed by numbers of this size.

Obama fights back! Sort of…

Last night as I was took my nightly stroll through the blogs and message boards that litter the world that we call “Cyber Space” I stumbled upon the following:

Senator Barack Obama will intensify his assault against Senator John McCain, with new television advertisements and more forceful attacks by the candidate and surrogates beginning Friday morning, as he confronts an invigorated Republican presidential ticket and increasing nervousness in the Democratic ranks.

An involuntary of jolt of electricity shot through me as I thought to myself, “well, it’s about fucking time.”

This is what many of us democrats have been waiting for after days, and even weeks, of political ads that have painted Obama as this celebrity figure that feels that people should worship the ground that he walks on. Most recently, the McCain campaign has released ads that have accused Obama of wanting to teach children about sex, even before they learn to read; to claiming that Obama’s sour because his light is fading now that Palin has come on the scene.

The only messages out of the McCain camp has been slanderous mudslinging, and out and out lies that they have recited on an daily basis as they make their pit stops across the nation; despite media outlets across the board calling them out on it.

So yes, a tougher Obama camp is just what the doctor ordered.THEN I watched the commercials.

::crickets::

I blinked and asked myself, “Is that it?”

THIS is supposed to hold a candle to, “Obama wants to teach 5 year olds about sex” and “Obama just called Palin a Pig” and “Obama thinks that he’s the Messiah and can part the sea” and “Obama is an Elitist” and “Obama is jealous because Palin stole his light” and the countless other attacks against him and his character that have been unfounded, and factually unjust?

Let me ask this again, does pointing out that McCain can not use a computer or send an email REALLY combat ANY of the aforementioned slander?

What about calling the McCain camp out on their insistence of labeling “the bridge to no where” as a significant accomplishment of Governor Palin’s, when facts are to the contrary? What about “mocking” the notion that the fact that Alaska is the closest part of the US to Russia (and by golly you can actually SEE it from several areas of Alaska) makes for real foreign policy experience? What about highlighting the fact that, although they are running on this “anti-earmark” policy, Palin herself has requested millions in earmarks as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska? What about the FACT that the McCain Camp is shielding Palin from interviews? If she is so ready for VP, why is she not ready to take on the press?

Why not formulate an entire commercial that highlights the underhanded way that the McCain camp is misleading the country; especially in terms of Obama wanting to teach kids about sex when in actuality, he was trying to PROTECT kids from molestation. McCain/Palin for pedophiles? Hey, why not? If “they” want to go there, then why can’t we?

The point is this… There is SO much, that is so much more tangible to attack the McCain/Palin ticket on, and they are missing the mark BIG TIME.

This campaign is no longer about simply sticking to the issues. This is war, people, and perception is everything. The dem’s better pull it together.