Stagpartypooper

The Debate: McCain's Insane Mortgage Proposal

As a follow up to the last post, NO, government didn't do too much. It did too little too late, and gave a 'skip jail card' to Barney Frank, Ben Bernanke, Chuck Schumer, et al. Had some sort of restructuring been proposed and acted upon 3-4 years ago, we may not have avoided all this, but at least limited the damage. I am a Mortgage and Real Estate Professional, full-time student, and currently a struggling wage-earner. There is plenty of blame to go around from the consumer, to the mortgage brokers to the appraiser, to the hauncho in the approval department at the banks that are failing now; on down to the white-collared Ivy League educated criminal geniuses that packaged all of our livelihoods up in a shiny 'Fiat.' Greed and class wars are what have driven this crisis, and no one wants to say it. Fear of difference and blurring of class lines are what is preventing many in this country, some of whom I know personally, from voting Democratic. I get it. As for the debate, I agree that neither of the candidates' proposals are very concrete. Even with more fleshing out as we come closer to E-day, my suspicions are directed toward more useless pandering.

Having been a 'by default' supporter of Hillary before she turned to a campaign of attacks only a simpleton would listen to, I just couldn't stomach the dribble and low-brow lines that McCain, Palin (?,) and their imprudently chosen surrogates are passing off as a campaign. We didn't want McCain in 2000 or 2004, and after President GW bumbledy..., we want change and expect to find it in McCain? I too am unsure of the promise that an Obama presidency offers, but given the despicable tripe that John McCain has recently turned to, I am not sure that I am ready for another Rove puppet, one lamely attempting to conceal his obvious desperation, disconnect, and irrationality.

We may not like his politics, or socialistic leanings, but I suppose that we can all agree that Obama has the most rational and realistic grasp on the details of this crisis (a not so rare phenomenon). I certainly am not swayed by Obama's rhetoric, as I recognize it for what it is. He is however, seemingly more forthright, and is at least not pandering to my supposed inner 'Blue Collar TV' addict.

As for there being riots if McCain is elected, I just hope that most of America is sufficiently up to date on McCain's character post-Hanoi that minorities are not the only portion of the population that is up in arms. With all the brilliant minds - as well as a few warped ones - her on seekingalpha.com, it is no small wonder that while unfamiliarity can bring distrust, familiarity definitely breeds contempt. More precisely, familiarity breeds contempt when we are all party to a 24 hour news cycle in which neither of the candidates is offering significantly less '...of the same.'

I want my president to be smart, not some grumpy, adolescent idealist, that panders to special interests while making villains of the under-served. Notice I did not say underpriveleged. This is America, rather than Freebiestan. Give people the tools they need through legislation, and if they choose to use them responsibly to pull themselves up, great. Should they choose to ignore free market principles, they have in effect chosen the short end of the stick. Not my problem.

Equal access to the tools and access to the education with which to effectively make use of those tools in order to advance one's position is the key. Without 90-100% participation, the free market has handicapped itself, and we simply are not making full use of our employee assets/ inputs. Healthy, educated workers are the foundation of a functional, society with well-apportioned resources; not unlike a business. Not a society enamored with welfare for the undeserving of course, but one that rewards those who apply themselves and places into positions in which they are useful, those who choose to opt out.

Do any of us who actually want a change think that John McCain, who is stuck in the 50's with his 'Hussein' garbage, possesses the capacity for any meaningful change? Earmark, earmark, goodies, festooned....what are we 5? With his choice of Sarah Palin - also well versed in economics - need I say more? He'll be in hiding in Camp David more often than a mindless citizen from taxes during a financial 'crisis.' I am a Republican, I believe in God, and I am a conservative. I also believe we make the highest and best use of our talents when we solve our own problems, rather than relying on government. When we make government our god or our enemy, we miss the point. None of this has anything to do with patriotism, nor does it validate me as a good or bad citizen. Regardless of the dogma that other Americans with a similar profile have been accosted with, I certainly do not believe in a conservative use of my intellect. This is precisely what it would take for John McCain's pre-election appeal to resonate with someone who chooses to think.

'Country First' means bottom-up inclusiveness, rather than the top-down policies that have worked really well up to this point. Sorry to kill the buzz here at the stag party, but for most Americans, less is not more. More is more - we've all seen the markets lately. Whether we like it or, the world in which we live in and thrive, is dependent ultimately upon the consumer's mobility, not just confidence. That confidence, although fragile at times, comes from the bottom and must resonate throughout for sustainable growth to be probable.

Thank you for your time, and I welcome any corrections or constructive clarification/analysis of topics I may have covered too cursorily.

Sarah Palin: Wall Street's Candidate

I am normally not a fan of one-liners or straight-line deprecation. Even if it means I have to occasionally praise what are arguably my ideological foes, impartiality is a highly underrated and under-appreciated commodity these days. I, like everyone else have my biases. When we become too attached to - aka loyal - to a party line, sometimes we lose sight of what our party originally stood for. If you are not the habit of questioning your party's tactics or their politics, you will most likely be fine with whatever they say. In this case I make an exception though, and defy anyone to say Palin is good for the progress of our country. Even she couldn't say it. Instead, she asserted that we should "...progress the country." Huh? Apparently Palin and the person who said she can 'make cure' the country and Wall Street are both stupid.

Sarah Palin: Wall Street's Candidate

I am normally not a fan of one-liners or straight-line deprecation. Even if it means I have to occasionally praise what are arguably my ideological foes, impartiality is a highly underrated and under-appreciated commodity these days. I, like everyone else have my biases. When we become too attached to - aka loyal - to a party line, sometimes we lose sight of what our party originally stood for. If you are not the habit of questioning your party's tactics or their politics, you will most likely be fine with whatever they say. In this case I make an exception though, and defy anyone to say Palin is good for the progress of our country. Even she couldn't say it. Instead, she asserted that we should "...progress the country." Huh? Apparently Palin and the person who said she can 'make cure' the country and Wall Street are both stupid.

In addition to implying equitable distribution of resources and opportunity, the expression can also be used to approximate another expression: what's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine. Our party is famous for using double entendres to gain support for undeliverable promises disguised as policy/ political possibility.

I want to believe McCain is capable of delivering change, however listening to his words, and analyzing his body language tells me something different that what he seems to want me to believe. Rather than showing his respect for his presumably wise choice of Governor Palin by symbolically partnering in a handshake with here, he embraced her. Unconscious, subconscious or conscious, I see McCain as having started out on the wrong foot. Public perception of this political faux-pas, was just not present - or at least not very vocal. A hand shake would do, and the whole kiss on the cheek/ hug was too familiar I think, for someone McCain had met only once before - regardless of the context in which that meeting took place. Yes, John McCain is married to a woman who started out with a substantial silver spoon in her mouth, and yet is an accomplished businesswoman in her own right. He also left his wife of many years after having courted the future Mrs. McCain's attention, and applied for a marriage license while still with his first wife. Where do duty to country and duty to his first wife fit in with his solid 'character.' Country first implies a sense of honor and duty not shown as often as his sense of commitment to his own interests as well as a dogged search for greener opportunities - even on the other side of the aisle.
I don't see McCain hugging or kissing Joe Lieberman, even though they have met on multiple occasions and have done much more for each other, politically speaking. In some instances, Independents are the new Federalists, masking an even more extreme brand of Republican theology attractive by making conservative ideology seem too liberal, or even lacking bite. It's the old bait and switch. Many extreme conservatives are serving as surrogates for the extremely dysfunctional arm of my party. By coming out against both major parties, establishing themselves as experts, then endorsing (usually) the party they switched from in the first place. It's akin to distracting or stunning game in the wild- just long enough to leverage your kill-shot.
By the time the intended target is able to process the ruse, and realizes that they were the original target, the red dot has already done its job.

Lou Dobbs, CNN's 'independent' host and defender of the American middle class, got many Dems, and Pubbies, and actual Independents on his side by echoing the sentiments and stating the facts regarding the War on the Middle Class. In that sense, he did something positive if he got people who otherwise were not aware of this reality, and heard it as first-time thinkers, aka listeners, and thought it was amazing that this guy Dobbs was defending him.
What I see as being truly noteworthy though, is that in the week following the Republican Convention - which I am sorry to say that I am happy I missed attending - Mr. Dobbs attacked the press as being liberal in their treatment of Obama vs their treatment of McCain. Lou Dobbs had the gall to say this without highlighting that McCain has neither the track record, nor the character, nor the intelligence, nor the repect for the world's true mavericks and true heroes that I want to see in my President.

To say McCain is stuck in old politics would be disingenuous and unrealistic - not to mention wreckless. What worked for the politicians of yesteryear worked not because of any magic, or even an unsophisticated populace. I know more than a few MBAs who could care less about Darfur or Georgia, and cared even less about Serbia or Rwanda. It is not about foreign policy/ experience/ MBAs or PhDs or even Navy Crosses. "Country first" does not show me that your ambitions or future ambitions - in the guise of courting and obtaining popular support - take a back seat to your country's well-being. Not as much as service to your community in place of taking the path that leads you to one day being the head of Lehman Bros and part of our country's decline.

My glasses are neither flowery or rose-colored, nor are they tinted with the brand of "negativism" or (more accurately) cynicism or pessimism. Spare the rod and spoil the child - when the child spoiled, and clueless in terms of responsibility to family, community, country and world has a tantrum or goes on a violent rampage, correction is needed. Neither the death penalty nor a slap on the wrist are merited or justified, but a fair and logical medium exists and begs for implementation.

As our nations faces questions and consequences born of our answers and decisions based on those answers, I feel and firmly believe that we cannot afford someone that will ask the wrong questions so that we don't feel threatened. The last time my party supported a candidate who allowed us to become complacent and to not feel threatened when really we should have taken action to guard against the threat - was 8 years ago.

Lock-step party politics is dangerous for the reason I stated above- never having to admit you are wrong; as well as for this more dangerous possibility and reason: never having to think. It takes more work to think, and brings us out of our comfort zone/ daily routine of rote execution of easily automated tasks. Do you want NOT to be ABLE to demand affordable health care? Some things are best left to proactivity rather than chance. Like health care, the environment, etc.

It's like being wrong about the existence of God. Who cares? The good things - morality, caring for God's Creation by respecting the rest of it, ie, class-warfare, gender and racial diversity, eco-diversity and a god-like sense of responsibility to steward and act as guardians over the environment over which we were given dominion. Any departure from these very basic principles walks the line between disrespectful and arrogant in the secular world and blasphemous in the realm of God.
To misuse your God-given intellect and allow yourself to be fleeced is just as irresponsible, self-serving and blasphemous. I am not an extremist, nor a "whatever" kind of person. I do however like to introduce, explore and follow through ideas to one or more logical conclusions.

Then again, even if Wall Street were recently proven to be good for America, I guess it MIGHT be okay that Sarah Palin might be good for Wall Street. Depends on if you are really there, working on and working on reforming Wall Street, or just want your undeserved $45k investment banker bonuses like before the sub-prime bust. Meanwhile, the rest of America continues to struggle to pay its energy costs and medical bills. Then again, that could be just my opinion...or a simple truth.