Buckeye RINO

The State of Ohio Blogger Alliance has undertaken the task of highlighting criticisms of the Obama ticket that the in-the-tank MSM works hard to downplay or outright ignore.  The effort has been titled “Help Ohio Prevent Electing Obama Now” (HOPE ON), and, in all, 13 installments will be rolled out for blog readers to peruse and reflect upon.

My recap of Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.

Jay Anderson has the scoop on HOPE ON Part 3 at his blog, Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate.  At issue is this Obama quote: “I’ve got two daughters. If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”  The video link is here.  You’ve heard the Republican claims that Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the United States Senate.  His views on abortion are as leftward as they come.  Anderson posts links to several sources, but this one and this one, both from Princeton University professor Robert George, are the most definitive.

From the Buckeye RINO perspective:

Abortion is an issue that matters a LOT to me.  I’m the oldest of 10 siblings, so I don’t understand what’s wrong with having babies.  I haven’t devoted blog space picking apart Obama’s stance on abortion because it’s so obvious that he’s not even close to being on the same wavelength I am.  In the run-up to the Republican VP selection, though, I did stipulate that my support of the McCain ticket would at least require a pro-life running mate even though McCain himself had a pro-life record.  McCain had assured us that he would.  The pick of Sarah Palin definitely helped solidify the base.

The State of Ohio Blogger Alliance has undertaken the task of highlighting criticisms of the Obama ticket that the in-the-tank MSM works hard to downplay or outright ignore.  The effort has been titled “Help Ohio Prevent Electing Obama Now” (HOPE ON), and, in all, 13 installments will be rolled out for blog readers to peruse and reflect upon.

My recap of Part 1 is here.

Dave Stacy at NixGuy has the scoop on Part 2, chock full of videos.  McCain has taken an all-of-the-above approach to achieving energy independence.  Obama has been forced to cave in from the energy stance he took during the primaries, because the public sided with McCain on this issue.  If Obama is dragged kicking and screaming to the issue of drilling for oil, is he really committed to doing it?  Check out Part 2 at NixGuy, and decide for yourself.

From the Buckeye RINO perspective:

While I didn’t devote blog space to comparing Obama and McCain on energy, I did compare Ohio’s 13th Congressional Representative Betty Sutton with her challenger Dave Potter on energy and the economy.  Betty Sutton’s efforts on the energy front have been LAME!  Dave Potter takes an all-of-the-above approach and he took a principled stand against the bailout demonstrating his superior knowledge of the economy, so I’ve endorsed Dave Potter for Congress.

The State of Ohio Blogger Alliance has undertaken the task of highlighting criticisms of the Obama ticket that the in-the-tank MSM works hard to downplay or outright ignore.  The effort has been titled “Help Ohio Prevent Electing Obama Now” (HOPE ON), and, in all, 13 installments will be rolled out for blog readers to peruse and reflect upon.

Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog has unveiled the first installment of HOPE ON.  It includes this video, which points out that, more than two years ago, John McCain called for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Barack Obama benefited from the status quo at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, therefore, he’s part of the problem.  Blumer includes his own commentary that connects the dots for you.

From the Buckeye RINO perspective:

On this blog, I linked to a video showing Obama’s Democrat allies defending the status quo at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the Franklin Raines era.  I’ve already opined on this blog that the McCain ticket portends more change we can believe in than the Obama ticket does.  Of course, I advocated against the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The final presidential candidates’ debate between Barack Obama and John McCain has concluded.  The final question of the night was about education.  Having taught in both American and South Korean classrooms, I know something about why America doesn’t fare well in academics even though America pays the most money per pupil on education in the world.

The answer?  Other countries allocate their resources toward academic achievement.  America allocates its resources toward social engineering.  Want a prime example?  Bill Ayers.  Bill Ayers received grant money that Barack Obama distributed that was for social engineering purposes, not for academic achievement.  But not just private grant money gets diverted for tangential purposes, so does tax money.  Liberals use our schools as labs for social experimentation.  They are more interested in promoting group think and producing a society that isn’t stratified than they are about producing scholars that have a facile command of math, language, the arts, and the sciences, and that are able to think for themselves.

John McCain missed a clear opportunity to tie Obama to Ayers on the very important campaign issue of education.

In South Korea, parents and teachers just want their kids to master the subject material.  There isn’t any additional agenda competing for resources.  That’s the secret of their success.

The MSM is reporting that a probe by Alaska’s state legislature has ruled that Palin abused the power of her office.  What did she do to abuse power?  She didn’t rein in the First Dude when he phoned various personnel in state government to talk about Trooper Wooten, an ex-brother-in-law who’d run afoul of workplace rules in the past.

It is a spot on Palin’s record.

Having said that, I wish that’s the worst that could be said about many of our current crop of politicians.  I realize people are human and prone to error, but there are so many politicians, some still in office, that are guilty of much more egregious behavior that I think should have been given the heave-ho a long time ago.

Also, the First Dude’s efforts were geared toward greater integrity among state troopers.  It still fits within Palin’s framework of putting government on the side of the people, even when the government is doing what it can to resist it.

Let’s not forget that Palin bucked the system to get to where she is, not riding anyone’s coattails, and taking on dirty politicians within her own party, let alone taking on those outside the party.  That kind of track record is bound to make enemies among the political elites.  These political elites that have been spurned by Palin are hoping that they’ve opened a window that will allow them to regain ground that they lost to Palin.

Personally, I wish we had a bunch of politicians in Ohio that had Palin’s attitude about putting government on the side of the people, and not letting entrenched interests stand in the way of that.

The MSM has been floating reports that there’s been at least one voice raised at McCain rallies saying “Kill him,” referring to Obama as the target.  The audio is garbled, so I’m not sure if it really happened, but if it did, someone needs a personal visit from a cadre of Secret Service agents pronto.  If I ever heard someone raise that cry, I’d do my best to lead the Secret Service straight to the perp.  I don’t know if any readers have had the privilege of attending a McCain rally, but I certainly hope that you’d help single out such a perp, too.

[UPDATE] This Times-Leader report says that the Secret Service can find no one who can corroborate the allegations of a solitary journalist that someone shouted “Kill him” at a McCain rally.  There is a phone number, though, if a witness wants to call in.

The Plain Dealer editorializes that because the Secretary of the Treasury has become so much more powerful (I referred to the prospect as making Hank Paulson head of the Communist Party) as a result of the passage of the bailout bill, that Barack Obama and John McCain should name their choices for Secretary of the Treasury in advance of the November election.

I should point out to the Plain Dealer that, by the time the bailout bill was passed, large-scale early voting in Ohio had already begun.  Whoops!  Those early votes are already locked in, no matter who is named. Read the rest of this entry »

Not everyone has a firm grasp of fundamental economic principles.  We can see that reflected in the way Ohio’s Congressional delegation voted on the bailout bill, or “rescue plan,” or whatever you want to call it.

We saw a group of legislators who understood economic principles well enough that they comfortably stood by their convictions, voted “NO” on the bailout bill, and even put forward their own proposals to fix Wall Street’s mess without bailing out Wall Street using taxpayers’ money.

We also saw a group of legislators who knew a little bit about economics, saw the same crisis looming that the above-mentioned group saw, but who were only capable of “inside-the-box” thinking in coming up with a plan that will stave off a few symptoms of the malaise, “for the good of the country,” but will not eradicate the pathogens that have sickened our economy, thus the economic crisis has not been averted.  These representatives to Congress voted “YES” on the bailout bill because they only knew enough of economics to offer temporary relief from the symptoms, not enough to treat the syndrome, and figured it was better to act on the little bit of knowledge that they had than do nothing.

Then there were three legislators, Pat Tiberi, Jean Schmidt, and Betty Sutton, who are so clueless about economics that they don’t know what or who to believe.  They took their cue from others (check out this video clip of Betty Sutton from the Openers section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer), because they lacked their own knowledge and inward convictions. They voted NO on Monday but changed their vote to YES on Friday.

If the economy is issue number one in this election, then how are these three supposed to be of any help?

Of course, one must look at who they are running against to see if their challengers offer any advantages over the incumbents.  Read the rest of this entry »

I am very disappointed with our U.S. Senators, not just George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown, but many, many others.  In the House, they voted on a bailout bill that was a little over 100 pages long.  Tonight, the Senate voted on a bailout bill that was about 450 pages long.  While some good measures were added in to better the bill, there were also some bad measures added in that worsen the bill.  The fundamentals, though, remain just as bad as they were.

Some of the Senators who spoke with the MSM afterward said that they had received support from small businesses in their state to pass the bailout bill.  The thought that crossed my mind is that ordinary Americans have very little access to their Senators.  The Senators live in a bubble.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader, pointed out that Congress will adjourn later this week, but will reconvene in late November for organizational meetings.  How naive is it for me to hope that committee assignments in the new Congress, specifically banking and finance committee assignments, will trend toward legislators that do NOT receive campaign contributions from the industries they should oversee?

My representative to Congress, Democrat Marcy Kaptur, has recently been possessed by an alien puppetmaster from the planet Austere in the galaxy Libertad.  Since this dramatic change, she has voted down a bailout bill that would have socialized our nation’s economy, and has appeared on CNN with, no, not Campbell Brown or one of those anchors in the tank for Obama, but with independent populist Lou Dobbs, talking about reforming Wall Street with zero taxpayer dollars and market solutions!  Who knew?  (I know you can’t believe it, so check out the video clip here.) Note to aliens: Don’t be in any hurry to relinquish your control over my representative to Congress.  I like the new Marcy Kaptur better than the old Marcy Kaptur.

I suppose I shouldn’t be poking fun at her at a time when she’s doing the right thing.

On a more serious note, my parents’ representative to Congress, Bob Latta, was in Seneca County yesterday talking about his views on the bailout bill.  I’m a little bit troubled by the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune’s account of what Latta said the upside to the bill was.

The $700 billion would not have been allocated all in one lump sum. An initial sum of $250 billion would have been allocated, with another $100 billion later after authorization by the president, and another $350 billion with additional congressional approval.

I like the upside of Marcy Kaptur’s proposal a whole lot better: $0.

Note to Latta:  Even the initial sum of $250 billion is way too much.  I want those billions from AIG and the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts back RIGHT NOW!

However, Latta did identify a very ugly downside to the bailout bill.

Latta said the bill would allow the secretary of the treasury to bail out virtually any kind of bad debt: mortgages, student loans, credit card debt, and even car loans.

“They could say we’re going to dump all that credit card junk on the American taxpayers,” Latta said. “That’s scary. How are you going to securitize that?”

Latta said he and many other legislators, including Democrats, were troubled because FDIC leaders were not included in discussions about the bailout.

Latta said a $700 billion bailout would increase the national debt to more than $11 trillion.

OK, so, taking that last fact first, Mr. Latta, do you want to revise your statement about the $250 billion being part of the upside?

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the bill tonight, but it has been amended since it had been presented in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Senators are expecting that Representatives in the lower House of Congress will like this package better, because there are a few more bells and whistles.  This bothers me to no end, knowing that for the bailout attempt to fail, nearly everybody who was against it last time needs to be against it the next time.

This time, the FDIC, which Latta said wasn’t in the mix before, is now in the mix.

OK.  I can support the change to FDIC if it was a stand-alone bill.  It’s not enough to sway me to support this bailout bill.

This time, tax cuts will be in the mix.  I support tax cuts, but if they are part of this bailout bill, I’ll vote against them.

The fundamental crux of the matter is that this bill gives Hank Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, friend to the Wall Street crooks and enemy of the taxpayer, $250 billion of taxpayer money right up front, and perhaps $700 billion over all (and maybe more, since the precedent has already been set) to bailout whoever he pleases, with no judicial review.  He already acted on behalf of Bear Stearns without getting permission from the American people.  He already acted on behalf of AIG without getting permission from the American people.  He was able to coax Congress into going along with a bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  He’s been a crybaby that threw a tantrum to get this latest bailout approved, but it didn’t work.  Now he’s handing out candy to get this bailout approved.  Paulson and his Wall Street cronies have been more manipulative than any spoiled rotten brat I know.  Has it occurred to anyone on Capitol Hill and in the MSM that Paulson has been wrong with every move he makes?  Has it occurred to anyone that on Capitol Hill and in the MSM that Paulson has quietly assured his Wall Street cronies that the fix is in, and that he guaranteed to them that he’ll deliver the goods?  If we want accountability and oversight, it has to start with denying any of this bailout money.  It has to start with not granting additional power to the Secretary of the Treasury.

To our Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill, I implore you to not pass anything at the present time that includes billions of taxpayer dollars and makes a czar out of the Treasury Secretary.  Start with the Marcy Kaptur plan of $0.  Add my new “Ellis Island” plan.  Have Congressional hearings about the Mike Spence plan.  Don’t pass this socialist takeover with Paulson as head of the Communist Party.

Yes

• Boehner (R)
• Pryce (R)
• Hobson (R)
• Regula (R)
• Wilson (D)
• Ryan (D)
• Space (D)

No

• Tiberi (R)
• Turner (R)
• LaTourette (R)
• Chabot (R)
• Schmidt (R)
• Latta (R)
• Jordan (R)
• Kaptur (D)
• Kucinich (D)
• Sutton (D)

By no means are we out of the woods when it comes to economic crisis.  I’m not cheering the fact that our economy will be rocked severely.

I am happy, though, that I still live in the U.S.A., not the U.S.S.S.A (the United Soviet Socialist States of America).

Congress must still take action, but the message is clear:  Stop the march toward nationalization of our financial sector.  Stop the march toward socialism.

We can regulate.  We can reregulate.  We can stop the fraud and the cheating.  We will be financially in dire straits, but we’ll still be free, and the market will eventually correct itself.

My favorite John Kerry quote (though referring to different circumstances when delivered at the DNC in 2004):  “The future doesn’t belong to fear.  The future belongs to freedom.”