The Whole World is Watching -- Again

Obama Speaks to Huge Crowd in Berlin

Barack Obama Will Restore U.S. Reputation Worldwide

40 years ago, in 1968, disenfranchised Democratic voters demonstrated in Chicago while police teargassed them and beat them with clubs. Martin Luther King and their hope for the future, Bobby Kennedy, had been assassinated and their candidate, Eugene McCarthy, was replaced by the DNC's hand-picked stooge, Hubert Humphrey. Their cry to the world in front of TV cameras was: 'THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING". Now, it is watching again.

If the world could vote, Barack Obama would win by a landslide.

He'd take 78% of the vote in France, 72% in Germany, 70% in Canada and 61% in Japan, according to global newspaper polls and Harris Interactive, a market research firm in Rochester, N.Y.

Beneath those numbers, running parallel to Obama-mania, is a shifting global view of the United States. One week before Election Day, the world is revising its opinion of America. After a drop of confidence in the United States, presidential candidate Barack Obama has revived the U.S. brand, exporting a vision of American renewal to a world watching the election with unprecedented interest.

"He's just stirred the imagination of ordinary people," said Daniel Kinnear, a veteran diplomat based in South Africa. "For a country like South Africa that is coming out of a legacy of apartheid and is still dealing with its legacy, Obama remains a sign of hope. There's an incredible romanticism of having a black American on the forefront of change in the United States."

"If Obama does win, this could also be the moment when the world stops hating America," Vir Sanghvi, an Indian columnist, wrote in the Hindustan Times. "The world will feel engaged by an Obama presidency. By electing Obama they have the chance to earn ... goodwill, to transform their country's image, and to finally stem the rising tide of global anti-Americanism."

Since President Bush took office in 2000, approval of the United States has dropped, along with its soft power -- indirect influence by which the United States can advance its policy goals without the use of force or coercion.

SOURCE: ABC NEWS

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Bragi Thor Antoniusson, a 23-year-old student in Iceland, thinks the answer is: at least some.

"We're not asking to have a vote, what we're asking is that Americans open their eyes and see that the world's opinion matters," Antoniusson told The Trail.

Antoniusson helped create the online survey site If the World Could Vote, where users click to vote by country. To prevent multiple votes and voting by bots, the site counts one vote per IP address (the identifying code for a computer's network). If you've clicked on either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama to cast a vote using your personal or work computer, whichever country that computer may be in, the site only counts the vote once. There are ways to abuse this, of course -- users can vote from more than one computer, for example -- but, for the most part, it works. One click, one vote. "Some people may think the site is just silly, or just something to pass around with friends," Antoniusson said, "but it's still saying something."

And Antoniusson, an Obama supporter, was happy to report that as of Monday night, it's a digital landslide for the Democrat. Out of 475,000 votes cast from 200 countries, Obama drubs McCain, 87 percent to 13 percent. More than 40,000 votes-by-clicks were cast in Canada, about 20,000 came from Australia and Finland and some 4,000 from China. About 170,000 came from America.

The results of Antonoiusson's unscientific poll are in sync with findings from the most recent Gallup polls conducted in 70 countries. Gallup's world poll, which can be accessed on Foreign Policy's site, shows Obama leading McCain 66 percent to 15 in Japan, for example.

"For me, my vote for Obama goes back to his opposition to the Iraq war. I know it's not high on the list of what Americans want to talk about, but America's invasion of Iraq affected more than just America. There are about 40 other countries with troops in Iraq because America decided to go to war," Antoniusson continued. (Most of the troops from the coalition that assisted with the initial phase of the war have since departed).

SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST

An Open Letter to Red States

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking all the Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, all the Northeast, perhaps even Pennsylvania and my home state of Arizona which no longer bleeds red. Add to that Nevada, New Mexico and perhaps even Virginia and Ohio. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: you get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. You get Sarah Palin.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel, Apple and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make all the Red States pay their fair share. Good luck!

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to squander our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States banded together we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of
America's quality wines (you may serve French wines at state dinners, if they'll let you), 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92% of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the
tornados, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Peace be with you,
Cheers from the Blue States

Obama/Biden '08

Banks Hoarding Bailout Dollars - Loans???

According to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the chief proponent of the big bank bailout, flooding the banks with taxpayers’ money was supposed to get them to start lending freely again. And that, in turn, was supposed to stabilize the markets and prevent the downturn from being worse than it otherwise would be.

It was not entirely clear from the start exactly how Mr. Paulson would ensure that things would go that way. Indeed, earlier this month, shortly after the bailout was enacted, The Times’s Mark Landler reported that Treasury officials also wanted to steer the bailout billions to banks that would use the money to buy up other banks.

Now, lo and behold, with $250 billion in bailout funds committed to dozens of large and regional banks, it turns out that many of the recipients of this investment from taxpayers are not all that interested in making loans. And it appears that Mr. Paulson is not so bothered by their reluctance.

Mr. Paulson and the bailout recipients have some explaining to do. Congress should plan hearings as soon as possible — and take action to set a clear strategy.

In his column on Saturday, The Times’s Joe Nocera told about a conference call that he had listened in on recently between employees and executives of JPMorgan Chase. Asked how an infusion of $25 billion of bailout funds would change the bank’s lending policy, an executive said the money would be used to buy other banks.

“I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way,” the executive said. He added that the money could also be used as a backstop in case “recession turns into depression or what happens in the future.”

There was not a word about lending — not to businesses or home buyers or car buyers or students or other consumers. Just the opposite. In response to another question, the executive said that the bank expected to continue to "tighten credit".

SOURCE: NY TIMES

Barack Obama Addresses the Nation

AMERICAN STORIES, AMERICAN SOLUTIONS

This is the complete 30-minute infomercial in which Barack Obama presented his ideas to and hopes for the American people as we approach the election on November 4. An excellent presentation.

John McCain - An Economic Disaster

McCain is Dazed and Confused on the Economy

John McCain does not have the ability to fix this economic crisis. After declaring the fundamentals of the economy strong, he created a political circus in Washington last week by mucking up bailout negotiations; a deplorable stunt, considering he and his political cronies helped cause the current meltdown.

It was McCain and his economic adviser Phil Gramm who pushed for the deregulation that helped lead to the banking crisis, and it was McCain's crony Rick Davis who had deep lobbyist ties to Freddie Mac. Don't let others be fooled by McCain's economic grandstanding because the reality is his policies and principles will only exacerbate our financial hardships. That's why you must spread this video.

McCain is being deceitful with his sudden populist message and support for regulation; his economic policies still favor our nation's wealthy elite. Call out McCain's economic dishonesty. Send this video to friends and ask them to sign up for a free Brave New Films video subscription to know the latest on TheRealMcCain.com. Then, post it on your blogs and spread it on networking sites like Digg and Reddit. These are some of the best ways to reach people who are not following this debate closely.

McCain/Palin "October Surprise" Boomerangs

Professor Rashid Khalidi

Today both John McCain and his sidekick, Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of having ties to a PLO radical. (CNN) -- Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday said Sen. Barack Obama has ties to a Columbia University professor who she said is "a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization." Gov. Sarah Palin says it's "not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record."

The Obama campaign said on its Web site that "ugly insinuations about Barack Obama's relationship with a former neighbor and university colleague ... are completely false." The professor has denied he was a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization.

"It seems that there is yet another radical professor from the neighborhood who spent a lot of time with Barack Obama going back several years," Palin said at an event in Bowling Green, Ohio. "This is important because his associate, Rashid Khalidi ... in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization."

Sen. John McCain's campaign repeatedly has sought to tie Obama to former 1960s radical William Ayers, who co-founded the Weather Underground. Ayers is a professor at the University of Illinois.

Khalidi is a leading scholar of Middle Eastern studies at Columbia, and he was a contemporary of Obama's while on the faculty of the University of Chicago. He has been a harsh critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Israel and has accused the country of "occupying" Palestinian territories. But he has denied acting as a PLO spokesman during a seven-year period in the 1970s and 1980s. Khalidi said Wednesday, "I am not speaking to the media at this time, and certainly not until this idiot wind passes."

The Obama campaign called Palin's remarks "another recycled, manufactured controversy from the McCain campaign to distract voters' attention from John McCain's lockstep support for George Bush's economic policies."

WHAT JOHN McCAIN IS HIDING!

"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. " . . . The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job -- make information public."

Really?

During the 1990s, John McCain, while serving as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.

A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS".)

The relationship between Khalidi and McCain extends back as far as 1993, when McCain first joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."

McCain's organization helping a Palestinian group conduct research in the West Bank or Gaza should raise questions to be asked of McCain, including why he chose to hide this information and attempt to paint Obama as a radical, when in fact he raised significant money for Khalidi.

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan responds as follows:

“This is just another recycled, manufactured controversy from the McCain campaign to distract voters’ attention from John McCain’s lock-step support for George Bush’s economic policies. Barack Obama has been clear and consistent on his support for Israel, and has been clear that Rasheed Khalidi is not an adviser to him or his campaign and that he does not share Khalidi’s views. Instead of giving lectures on media bias, John McCain should answer why, under his own chairmanship, the International Republican Institute repeatedly funded an organization Khalidi founded, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, over the course of many years.”

How the American Economy Was Destroyed

The Failure of Republicans on the Economy

When I was young, my dad told me something that has stuck with me for a lifetime:

"If you want to live like a Democrat, vote Republican.
If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democrat"

Many voters will be be young people who may not have lived through Republican administrations other than this one and may just believe that this is unique. IT IS NOT. Here is a history of how Republicans "manage" our money, or is it STEAL our money? Watch this 30-second historical video, and you be the Judge.

Please pass this on as Republicans lie so often they believe it, and are somehow able to convince many vulnerable Americans. NOT THIS TIME!

HOW REPUBLICANS DESTROYED AMERICA'S ECONOMY

A simple tutorial of how Republican recklessness set the stage for the destruction of the global economy.

Obama Responds to McCain's Name-Calling

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thinkprogress.org — “It’s a dangerous road, but we have no choice, ” a top McCain strategist told the Daily News. “If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose.” 10/6/08

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So, for the past three weeks we have been subjected to a very dirty smear campaign against Obama by the McCain/Palin organization, even including a faked sexual attack by a "big black man"who was an Obama supporter!

As someone who supported Bobby Kennedy in 1968 and shook his hand the day before he won the California primary, then was murdered, I have waited 40 years for this and I will not sit idly by while the Republicans get away with the same kind of dirty politics that symbolizes the depths to which the Party has descended.

"by the end of next week, he'll be calling me a secret Communist"

SEN. OBAMA: "Now, because he knows that his economic theories don't work, he's been spending these last few days calling me every name in the book. Lately he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll-back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can finally give tax relief to the middle class. I don't know what's next. By the end of the week he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Why Was His Statement Necessary?

Listen to Sarah Palin:

Here's what John McCain's brother, Joe, had to say:

Joe McCain, speaking at an event in support of his brother, called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia "communist country," according to a report on The Washington Post's Web site. "I've lived here for at least 10 years and before that, about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country," Joe McCain, a Navy veteran, said about his military postings. He spoke at an event in Loudon County, Va.
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The Failure of Republicans on the Economy

When I was young, my dad told me something that has stuck with me for a lifetime:

"If you want to live like a Democrat, vote Republican.
If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democrat"

Many voters will be be young people who may not have lived through Republican administrations other than this one and may just believe that this is unique. IT IS NOT. Here is a history of how Republicans "manage" our money, or is it STEAL our money? Watch this 30-second historical video, and you be the Judge.

Please pass this on as Republicans lie so often they believe it, and are somehow able to convince many vulnerable Americans. NOT THIS TIME!

HOW REPUBLICANS DESTROYED AMERICA'S ECONOMY

A simple tutorial of how Republican recklessness set the stage for the destruction of the global economy.

The Housing Tragedy - An American Disgrace

WATCH THE HEARTBREAKING VIDEO

also:

Foreclosure Crisis Hits Veterans Hard

HOUSING MARKET CRISIS BOOM & CRASH ENGINEERED BY U.S. GOVERNMENT

They Did It On Purpose: The Housing Bubble and Its Crash Were Engineered from the Highest Levels of the U.S. Government, the Federal Reserve, and the Financial Industry. During the Clinton administration, the government required the financial industry to start expanding the frequency of mortgage loans to consumers who might not have qualified in the past. 

When George W. Bush was named president by the Supreme Court in December 2000, the stock market had begun to decline with the bursting of the dot.com bubble.

In 2001 the frequency of White House visits by Alan Greenspan increased. Greenspan endorsed President Bush's March 2001 tax cuts for the rich. More such cuts took place in May 2003. Signs of recession had begun to show in early 2001. The stock market crashed after 9/11. The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in March 2003.

The Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates, and by 2002 a home-buying frenzy was underway. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went along by guaranteeing the increasing number of mortgage loans. According to a mortgage broker this writer interviewed, word began to come down through the mortgage banks to begin falsifying mortgage applications to show more borrower income than borrowers actually possessed.

Banks that wrote mortgages began to offload them when Wall Street packaged them into mortgage-backed securities that were sold around the world as bonds to investors. Risk-analysts at the leading credit-rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch, gave their highest ratings to mortgage-backed securities whose risks were later acknowledged to be grossly underestimated.

Mortgage companies, with Alan Greenspan's endorsement, began to offer more Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs), loans that would reset at much higher rates in future years. Mortgage brokers fed the growing bubble by telling people they should buy now because housing prices would keep going up and they could resell at a profit before their ARMs escalated. Huge amounts of money began to flow into the economy from mortgages and home equity loans and from capital gains on resale of inflating property.

Meanwhile, in the world of investment securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission greatly reduced the amount of their own capital investors were required to bring to the table, resulting in a huge increase in bank leveraging of speculative trading.

George W. Bush was reelected in 2004 at the height of the housing and investment bubbles. By 2005 the housing bubble was accounting for half of all U.S. economic growth and yielding huge tax revenues to all levels of government. Despite the tax revenues from the bubbles the Bush administration was running huge budget deficits from expenditures on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. ABC News reports that during this time risk analysts at Washington Mutual, one of the nation's largest banks, were told to ignore high risk loans because lending had to be maximized. Those who objected were disciplined or fired.

State attorneys-general moved to investigate mortgage fraud but were blocked from doing so by orders of the Treasury Department's Comptroller of the Currency. There was no federal agency that was charged with regulating mortgage fraud. In February 2006, Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve Chairman and held interest rates steady. Homeowners began to default as ARMs reset.

The housing bubble began to collapse in 2006-2007, with the economy showing early signs of a recession and the stock market starting to decline by August 2007. Home prices began to plummet in most markets, with millions of homeowners owing more on their homes than their new appraisals. Homeowners began to default, with over four million homes going to foreclosure from 2006-2008. In many cases, homeowners simply walked away, dropping off the keys to their houses at the bank.

The U.S. economy shed 60,000 jobs in August 2008. In a year, Wall Street had cut 200,000 jobs. State and local governments began to cut budgets and jobs. The “toxic debt” from the collapse of the housing bubble brought about a full-scale crash of the U.S. financial system by September 2008. The stock market immediately fell, with 40 percent of its value—$8 trillion—now having been lost in a year. $2 million of the losses were in retirement savings.

The crash of the U.S. economy began to reverberate around the world with bankers and the IMF warning of an onrushing global recession. Massive bailouts by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve failed to stem the tide of the crashing markets. By late October 2008 the recession has begun to hit in force.

As the situation worsened, big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase received government capitalization even as they were buying up banks that were failing. J.P. Morgan Chase paid $1.9 billion for Washington Mutual with assets of over $300 billion. The U.S. government joined with the nations of Europe in planning a series of economic summits to explore global financial solutions. President Bush will host the first summit in Washington, D.C., on November 15, after the U.S. presidential election.

The U.S. military shifted combat troops from Iraq to the U.S. to contain possible civil unrest.

Most major retail chains began to close stores and lay off employees even as the Christmas season approached. The Washington Post reported on October 23, 2008: “Employers are moving to aggressively cut jobs and reduce costs in the fact of the nation's economic crisis, preparing for what many fear will be a long and painful recession.”

By Richard C. Cook

Copyright 2008 by Richard C. Cook

NOTE:   Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites. His book on monetary reform entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform will be published soon by Tendril Press. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider's Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age , called by one reviewer, “the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years . ”