I watched the Obama Infomercial this morning on YouTube.  What can I say?  After those 30 minutes I was ready to put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger.  It was all because the country is falling down around my ears.  People cannot get healthcare, people cannot retire, the environment is failing, and we are all going to hell in a hand basket.  But then a ray of hope started shining through the clouds and the great Messiah was floating down to earth bringing hope and change for all.  I lost count of the numbers of times that Sen. Obama said, “I will...<insert grand campaign promise>”.  He was promising the world on a string and then the sycophantic democrat pols would chime in with how great the Messiah is and how much the world would be better when he was in office.

Ugh…Then I wanted to pull the trigger because the bullshit was getting too deep and I thought I might drown in feces.

There were some pretty blatant lies, including the fawning praise about how he “changed the atmosphere” of the senate and how he “led” on bi-partisan bills to clean up Washington.  There is a pretty vicious article (for the AP) taking on some of the spin from this 30 minutes of lost time.  I am still waiting for other so-called bi-partisan fact checkers to post some information, as of 10:30am on Thu the 30^th they still haven’t…even though they managed to get debate “fact-checking” up by the end of the evening.

Meanwhile, Obama and company fiddle while Rome starts to burn.  Regular people seem to understand what is coming; business are preparing to take it in the shorts over healthcare, firearm sales are surging as election nears, and sports teams are on the auction block all in “anticipation” of Sen. Obama’s coming coronation.

I hope that the rest of those voters out there will wise up before they push that button or pull that lever.

It is amazing after many years to see a liberal candidate fully embrace his socialist and communist roots.  What is even more amazing is how hard it is to convince people what it truly is.  Never before have I seen a candidate speak clearly about redistribution of wealth, seizing government control of key industries, expanding union power, and growing government control of education.  I find it staggering that this agenda is appearing to work.  In many ways this could simply be because of the Cult of Personality that has grown around the “Chosen One”.  Any difficult questions that come towards his campaign have resulted in a full assault on the questioners and even physical assaults and disgusting effigies that would never be tolerated from the opposition.  There is even strong evidence that the threat of his coronation is driving the markets away.  It really feels like the “Revolution” is upon us…hopefully enough voters will come to their senses before Nov 4^th and we can be saved from the dangers of the “Audacity of Socialism”.

Well, in an interesting twist and another proof that you can't know what turns an election might take the latest numbers from the Real Clear Politics average poll have the lead by Sen. Obama falling below 5%.  This is the first time since the financial crisis that the poll has been this close and the trend in most of the daily tracking polls, such as Zogby and Gallup, have shown a slow downward trend for Sen. Obama and a slight upward trend for Sen. McCain.  Even the titanic double digit lead that Sen. Obama had in a few polls has vanished in the last few days.  We may have a close race after all.  The interesting polls will be when the newest post-debate, post-Joe state polls come out and we will see if the trend is moving closer there as well.

 

The interesting question is why? 

 

Sen. McCain has gotten some positive exposure, his debate went very well, he had an incredible performance at a charity dinner, he has been on Letterman, and Sarah Palin had a good showing on SNL.  Could this be the reason for the tightening?  I am sure some of it is.

 

Sen. Obama on the other hand has been dealing with the raised expectations of his inevitable victory.   From election bookies calling it for Obama, to fast-tracking his transition team, to the speaker of the house rubbing her hands in anticipation, and his landslide in his own mind.  He acts like he has the nomination all sewed up.  However, there as many people that dislike a gloating winner as dislike a sore loser.  Could this be the reason for the tightening of the race?  Some of it, sure.

 

The true reason the race has tightened I believe is the now-not-so-enigmatic Joe the Plumber, or Sam the non-licensed Plumber if you must.  You see Sen. Obama has had a history of making some off-the-cuff remarks that often give an insight into the true meaning behind his carefully crafted message.  From his early defense of Jeremiah Wright as simply being "taken out of context" to his San Francisco off-the-records fund raiser where he claimed that small town people cling to guns and religion.  This was another case of that type of message.  When it got caught on tape that he responded to a guy in a rope line that he wanted to take his money and "spread the wealth" it showed a moment of candor that the American public hadn't really seen.  Especially the late in the game public that is just starting to pay attention to this Presidential race.  When Sen. McCain hammered this moment in the debates and the news stories about showing the comment from the lips of Sen. Obama himself started playing around the country I believe that was the turning point in public opinion.  These comments were in such direct opposition to Sen. "I am giving 95% of working Americans tax cuts" Obama's lofty rhetoric that some people started to take notice and the recent scrutiny of his claims in a widely read financial newspaper started to hit home.

 

I think this has been a game-changing moment.  It has provided an impetus for many undecideds and soft-support moderates to exam Sen. Obama's claims more closely.  If he was misleading people on his true tax-cut plans what else might he be misleading people about.  If the McCain campaign hits this hard, as they have been, and this message starts to take hold it might once again have changed the playing field in what has already been a roller coaster ride of an election.

 

 

Postscript:  Once again the Main Stream Media has shown two things.  One is just how much in the tank for Sen. Obama they are by pursuing the life's history of "Joe the Plumber" with such glee.  They have to attempt to discredit him in an attempt to discredit the whole moment that was caught on tape.  I expect this from the left wing bloggers and webroots, but it really isn't the place for so-called objective journalism.  Second, they also have shown once again how out of touch they are with people.  By going after Joe and ignoring the real reason this moment became important, Sen. Obama's answer to the question, they have shown a true lack of tunderstanding of just what the American people are concerned about in this election.  They want to know about the people running, not those around them or the people who are asking the questions.

BTW, it looks like Joe isn't going to take his attack lying down.  Good for you Joe.

You can download the full audio of this debate here.

 

Well this is the first debate that I had the oppurtunity to watch the majority of.  I have to say I was well impressed with the moderator, Mr. Schieffer.  He did a masterful job of getting the candidates to engage each other, staying out of the way to let them talk, and following up discussions with related questions.  It was about time for McCain to get feisty.  I about fell out my chair laughing when Sen. McCain laid down the line, "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." It was about time he pointed out to Sen. Obama exactly whom he was running against.  He landed some other good shots and it seemed to me like Sen. Obama was playing defense the whole night.  However, listening to post debate talk today it seems like many people saw this as Sen. McCain being angry and Sen. Obama being aloof and calm.  Willl it change hearts and minds?  Who knows.

 

This is a great article that talks about how the administration and congress is treating our current economic system like those “non-competitive” sports leagues where Everyone Gets a Trophy.  It’s a great analogy and unfortunately I am saddened that many people might not see the connection.

All I can say is that I am proud I am not a Republican right now.  That’s because here we go again.  Pres. Bush has announced that the Federal Government is going to buy premium stocks in certain banks across the nation.  There you have it, a Republican President partially nationalizing the American banking system.  Why does it seem that some of the greatest losses of freedom we have as people come from well-meaning Republicans responding to a CRISIS?!?  Let’s just run down a quick list:

President Lincoln – Kills the concept of state’s rights with the Civil War

President Hoover – Kills the concept of true laissez-faire capitalism

President Nixon – Introduced Wage and Price Controls

President GW Bush – The Patriot Act & now the beginning of the Nationalization of the Banking system

I find it sad that the so-called party of freedom has done as much or more than the party of the left to destroy the basis of the economic freedoms this country was built on.  I realize that Wilson and the Federal Reserve, FDR and his New Deal, and Johnson with his Great Society have been as destructive, but none of those programs would have seen the light of day if Republicans hadn’t eroded the ideas of Freedom this country was built on.  Much like the others the actions president Bush and his administration have taken in the past month will pave the way for the erosion of more of our economic freedom.  Socialization of medical care, “critical” industries, and a full nationalization of the banks I feel are all on the table in the next Democrat administration. 

 

There is a gentleman I work with whom I often talk about politics, economics, world affairs, and just about any other topic that is in the news. I have found this person to be intelligent, hardworking, self-sufficient, reliable, and just about any other positive adjective I could think of. There is only one problem, this man is a bigot or I could use the term racist if I wanted to use the parlance of the day. When we discuss the world one underlying theme runs throughout this man’s discussion and it all boils down to a simple matter of skin color. The roots of all evil in this world come from people with a certain skin color. This could be just about any Billy-Bob, redknecked, flag-waving, gun-toting, angry white man. The only problem is that my friend happens to be African-American.

Like any bigot he was born and raised into it. It stems from his family and his community. To him every white-man is a racist or bigot just waiting to explode. Every evil, vile thing that has or is happening on this world stems from the hands of the white man. All sins, such as Greed, Envy, and Hatred all flow from the mind of the white man. The only reason any man of color fails is because of the pressing hand of the white man and conversely the only reason any white man succeeds is the raising hand of white privilege. It may sound harsh, but the two of us have talked about it extensively and have had heated discussions about the state of life. When someone is intolerant and hateful of someone else because of something such as skin color there is no other way to describe it, but as bigotry. According to the American Heritage Dictionary a bigot is "One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ."

Now you are wondering why I might be bringing this up...well it is because I see this same form of bigotry and intolerance currently playing out in our presidential race. However, like my friend it is not the usual suspect that is at the core of the bigotry. This bigotry isn’t the usual whitey hates blacky tripe. This is more than that. It is the subtle cry and belief that anything the white man does or says about or to a black man stems from bigotry and racism.

Who is truly the one who is intolerant and looking through the world with race-colored glasses? Is it the person who is willing to treat another as an equal and point out all the areas of differences, all the potential mistakes, and all the questionable choices of the other as he would anyone else regardless of race, class, or gender? Or perhaps it is the person who questions the other’s character, questions the other’s motives, calls the other a bigot or racist, and cries out whenever the other questions him...all because of the opponent’s race?

The narrative has been building over the weekend that Sen. McCain is fanning the flames of bigotry and racism, even though he has consistantly stood against the bigotry and ignorance of his own supporters. Yet, we have a litany of articles and talking heads this weekend calling out the racism of the McCain campaign for daring to talk about Sen. Obama, his history, and his beliefs. The following is just a sampling of these wonderful articles.

Here McCain is being chastised for talking about Sen. Obama's association with Willaim Ayres "a violent hippie" according to the article and by talking about the role that bad mortgages given to high risk borrowers had in the roots of today's financial crisis.  All because he is a BLACK.

Another article that claims that McCain is promoting FEAR by mentioning Obama's ties to a former terrorist and all because Obama is BLACK.

This op-ed basically acuses Palin of intentionally rallying the lynch mob and maybe even harm to come to Obama...only becuse he is BLACK.

How about this article talking about how the media is already stating that if Obama loses the election it is solely due to the fact he is BLACK.

Again those around McCain can't talk about certain issues because, after all Obama is BLACK and to talk about them would be racist.

But wait, here that nasty Palin and McCain are accused of "lancing the racial boil" because they dare talk about the history of a BLACK man.

Can't forget to talk about how the left is actually trying to use the fact that Obama is BLACK to their advantage.

The only reason that Obama is running away with this race must be because he is BLACK...can't possibly be because he is a weak candidate.

Finally, did you know that pointing out that Obama's socialist ideas about government control of the economy and redistribution of wealth is actually a racist attack on a BLACK man?

Now tell me once again, who are the real bigots in this race?  The ones willing to talk out about a flawed candidate and his ideas despite his race, or the ones convinced that everyone else can see nothing but his race?

 

Well after almost a week since the BAILOUT was passed the fear and loathing on Wall Street hasn't ebbed.  In fact, it seems to have gotten worse!  Markets around the world are teetering on the edge and global markets are reflecting nervous investors in full flight.  In the past week the DJI (Dow Jones) has fallen around 2000pts.  It's irrational.  It's fear.  It's nuts and there is not much anyone can do to stop it until people's fear lessen.  Take the unamed aircraft manufacturing company that I work for.

I'm watching the stock for the company tanking, it's down almost 70% for the year.  Hard to figure why since our sales have exceeded expectations and we've recently announced our second largest year of sales, second only to last year.  We could stop taking orders today and it would take us 3 years to close the doors.  I realize we're part of a larger organization, so perhaps our sister companies are dragging us down?  Nope, more sales in all units...in fact two of our sister companies just signed large defense contracts within the past several months.  I think we still plan on making our target sales and profit projections in every part of the company this year.  But still our stock is falling like a base jumper.  I bought a bunch of stock a week ago thinking that the market was going to bottom out then...too bad I didn't wait another week.  Oh well, I will still make a tidy profit once the market returns, because I guarantee our stock won't stay so low for long.

Fear, Fear, Fear.  It doesn't help that the media is running around in a panic and so-called market "GURUS" are yelling about FALLING DOWN A PIT WITH NO END IN SIGHT!!!!  The funny thing is that I wanted (and still want) to see the market take care of it's own problems without interference from the government.  I said there would be no real learning until the pain of failure was felt.  Looks like we are going to get the pain of failure AND a government bailout that will shield many of the morons who caused this problem.  Not to mention many of those WHO ARE TO BLAME look like they will stay in congress and continue to deny their roles.

 

Oh well...

 

Here is another Gem by John Stossel: Read and Enjoy

I finished listening to the debate.  Overall, I thought it was a good debate for Sen. McCain.  Not so much for Sen. Obama.  Looking at some online polls it seems my view is once more in the minority.  Of course there are more areas of Sen. Obama’s policy that I disagree with, so that may color my views.  There were some great moments by the questioners and from the moderator, Tom Brokaw.  The best question of the night I thought was early on where the lady asked how we could trust any of the candidates to do anything when their own parties were so out of control.  Great question…too bad more people with her attitude won’t look towards third parties, like the Libertarian, Green, or Constitution, in order to help break up the two-party stalemate in Washington.  Second thing I found highly entertaining was the clear frustration Tom Brokaw felt with the debate format and the candidate’s unwillingness to restrain themselves within the time limits.  I thought it was a good debate and unlike other “Town Hall” style debates, Mr. Brokaw avoided using any gotcha questions or any “pony-tail guy” (refer back to the 1992 Clinton/Bush/Perot debates) style questions. 

I’m going to look at the candidates performances individually.  I won’t go line by line, but I am going to organize my thoughts into three areas; the Good, the Bad, and the WTF!?!

Sen. Obama

There are many areas I disagree with Sen. Obama, taxes, spending, defense, etc.  So I found more areas of negative and WTF with him than I did with Sen. McCain.  However, let’s start with the Good.  There are really only a few points in Sen. Obama’s performance where I thought he did well.

The Good

·         The first was his stammering and stuttering.  He did pretty well all night keeping this verbal tic to a minimum.  I wasn’t surprised when he kept it under control during the first debate, but I expected to hear more of it this time around since the format was more extemporaneous.

·         During one of the tax cut portions he finally admitted that Sen. McCain’s tax cuts were for all businesses.  That fixes one of his biggest misstatements about his opponent’s tax plans.

·         At the end of the debate during one of the foreign policy questions he made a statement that basically implied that Sen. McCain was stuck in “20^th century” thinking about global politics and either wasn’t ready or too old to deal with “21^st century” issues in global politics.  It was his best attack against Sen. McCain’s strengths during either debate.

The Bad

• Sen. Obama really needs to stop running against Pres. Bush and run against Sen. McCain.
• Once again he clings to the claim that it was "deregulation" that caused the current financial crisis.
• Wish he would admit the economy probably will get worse instead of pandering.
• I was surprised he was the only one to bring up 9-11, too bad he was using it to complain about Bush
• As usual all solutions to problems flow down from government.
• He really would do better selling his tax increases on the wealthy if he would stop using class warfare rhetoric and just admit that he is redistributing their wealth.
• In what world does a spending "freeze" equal a budget cut?
• He whined several times about not getting to respond directly to McCain, when the rules he agreed to didn't allow it...Grow up.
• Would have liked to hear a direct answer to the question of when and how to reform social security and Medicare.
• When he claimed McCain voted against alternative energy he forgot to mention that it was in opposition to mandates and tax breaks, not the use of alternative sources themselves.
• Still doesn't seem to understand that drilling now is an immediate and short term fix and no one is proposing it as a long term solution.
• It is not surprising that he believes that government created the first computer...ENIAC wasn't even the first electronic computer, let alone the first period.
• Checking my pocket Constitution...I still don't see a right to healthcare.
• McCain refused to expand SCHIP to cover people making well above the poverty line, not the idea of subsidizing children's healthcare in general.
• Obviously has little regard for state's rights judging by his response to McCain's plan to allow purchase of out-of-state insurance...which seems to work pretty well for auto and home insurance.
• Some of McCain's attacks obviously hit close to home and he sounded angry and frustrated several times.
• He clearly still doesn't understand why we went to Iraq.
• Obviously doesn't understand why we don't have troops in Darfur...its' because the African Union doesn't want UN help.
• Finally, why respond to a question about Pakistan with a diatribe about Iraq and never relate the two.

The WTF!?!

• Prosperity doesn't "trickle" down?  When was the last time a job was created by the poor in our society?
• His spending and taxing proposals are a net "cut"?  In what world?  Even the most conservative estimates I've seen say he will add almost $300 billion a year to the deficit.
• How can you advocate that people in their personal lives cut spending and budgets to match lower income in one breath and then advocate that Washington spend more money on your programs in the face of tightening budgets?
• When does Peace Corp. Service equal sacrifice?
• If raising taxes on the wealthy and cutting taxes on the "working American" is about "fairness" then why aren't the final tax rates the same?
• The "environment and climate change" the biggest crisis of our time?  What about crazies who advocate suicide bombing armed with nukes?
• Does he really think he can get away with asking McCain how he would pay for his programs when his proposals are short $300B?  Oh yeah, in his world that's a budget cut.
• Moral reasons are enough to commit troops to a place such as Darfur...but, national security, such as Iraq, isn't?
• What does the Iraqi government have to do with tactics in Afghanistan?
• Where does he propose getting money in his "cut" budget to send financial support to former Soviet Bloc countries?

Sen. McCain

Overall, I felt Sen. McCain did a good job during the debate.  There are several areas I found really irritating about him and reminded why I didn’t support him in the first place.  I hope he didn’t annoy anyone else in his base too much.

The Good

• He came across as witty and lively, this is a good format for McCain
• Attacked the Democrats on their role in the Fannie/Freddie debacle and linked Obama to it
• Several times throughout the debate pointed clearly at his record to establish his experience and abilities, then contrasted sharply with Obama.
• Spending freeze is good start to federal spending reform and didn’t shy away from letting people know that they might have to sacrifice government programs in light of the economy.
• Loved the line about Obama’s tax plan being like “nailing Jell-O to a wall”
• He specifically addressed how Obama’s tax plans would affect small business.
• Vowed to raise no one’s taxes.
• Openly admits that “Drill Now” is not the long term solution, but a short term bridge to long term solutions about energy.
• Addressed some of the more nefarious aspects of Obama’s medical reform, such as mandates and the penalties of not covering children or employees.
• Understands that health care is not a right
• His foreign policy experience showed again during this portion of the debate.
• Has a true dislike of Vladimir Putin.
• Did not hesitate when asked if he would support allies with military might if they are attacked.
• Pushed Obama on his no “precondition” meetings with radical foreign leaders
• Effective use of closing question to make a strong closing statement

The Bad

• I got real tired of his verbal tic, if I hear “My Friend” one more time…
• McCain is right when he talks about his love of Teddy Roosevelt…the populist rhetoric was about to make me ill during the opening of the debate.
• Like Obama wouldn’t really admit the economy would get worse.
• I wish he wasn’t an “environmental warrior”, global warming populism at its worst.
• His answer about there not being another cold war possibility against Russia seemed a bit Pollyannaish to me.

The WTF!?!

• Just one…what nether region of his anatomy did he pull this new “mortgage bail-out” plan from?  Is he smoking crack?  We don’t need to bail-out irresponsible home owners anymore than irresponsible bankers.

 

 

You can download the full audio of the debate from here.

I watched the first 40m or so of the debate and will listen to the rest today.  From my limited impressions so far, it seemed that the candidates came with their game faces on.  Sen. McCain showed why he excells at these types of events, for whatever reason this direct back and forth with an audience makes him look far less stiff and awkward.  Sen. Obama did better than he has in the past, however he lost his cool once or twice when responding to Sen. McCain.  That was not the Obama most people are used to seeing, I thought it especially looked bad when he started complaining to Brokaw about wanting to respond to a McCain question.  When he then spent his time in answering the next question by answering McCain's previous exertions he played into a good one-liner by McCain, (paraphrasing) "I'll actually answer the question you asked...".  I found it highly amusing that Brokaw couldn't get either candidate to stay within their set time limits and kept whining about it throughout the portion I watched.  Analysis of the full debate will be up after I have a chance to listen to it all.

I know ya'll are probably as tired of reading things about the financial CRISIS as I am of typing it.  However, the more I dig into this I am truly wondering where the crisis was, except in people's heads.  We can't truly trust the stock market as a good guage of the financial situation, considering the stock market can raise or dive 200 points simple because a single company released its' financial reports and they weren't what the market expected!!!!  So here are just a few more articles really focusing more on the point that this bailout was for a manufactured or mental crisis than any true END OF THE WORLD!!!!

I think I have made my feelings clear on the load of Bull-Squeeze they are calling the “Rescue” plan.  While I am unhappy that they passed this bill in the first place, when you parse this bill and look at the laundry list of tax cuts, credits, and changes you might begin to understand why our tax code is so FUBARed.  This portion of the “Rescue” bill is a perfect example of why we need to scrap our current tax code and go with a complete change.  My choice is The Fair Tax.  We’ve tried flattening the tax code before (check Reagan’s 2-tiered flattened code) in the 20 years or so since that bill was passed our tax code has ballooned, and bills with tax items like this “Rescue” bill are the reason why.  Let’s scrap it and start with something new.

If you want to see the list of crap that was added to this bill, here it is:

Energy Related Targeted Tax Credits and Changes

Sec. 101. Renewable energy credit.
Sec. 102. Production credit for electricity produced from marine renewables.
Sec. 103. Energy credit.
Sec. 104. Energy credit for small wind property.
Sec. 105. Energy credit for geothermal heat pump systems.
Sec. 106. Credit for residential energy efficient property.
Sec. 107. New clean renewable energy bonds.
Sec. 108. Credit for steel industry fuel.
Sec. 109. Special rule to implement FERC and State electric restructuring policy.
Sec. 111. Expansion and modification of advanced coal project investment credit.
Sec. 112. Expansion and modification of coal gasification investment credit.
Sec. 113. Temporary increase in coal excise tax; funding of Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.
Sec. 114. Special rules for refund of the coal excise tax to certain coal producers and exporters.
Sec. 115. Tax credit for carbon dioxide sequestration.
Sec. 116. Certain income and gains relating to industrial source carbon dioxide treated as qualifying income for publicly traded partnerships.
Sec. 117. Carbon audit of the tax code.
Sec. 201. Inclusion of cellulosic biofuel in bonus depreciation for biomass ethanol plant property.
Sec. 202. Credits for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
Sec. 203. Clarification that credits for fuel are designed to provide an incentive for United States production.
Sec. 204. Extension and modification of alternative fuel credit.
Sec. 205. Credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
Sec. 206. Exclusion from heavy truck tax for idling reduction units and advanced insulation.
Sec. 207. Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit.
Sec. 208. Certain income and gains relating to alcohol fuels and mixtures, biodiesel fuels and mixtures, and alternative fuels and mixtures treated as qualifying income for publicly traded partnerships.
Sec. 209. Extension and modification of election to expense certain refineries.
Sec. 210. Extension of suspension of taxable income limit on percentage depletion for oil and natural gas produced from marginal properties.
Sec. 211. Transportation fringe benefit to bicycle commuters.
Sec. 301. Qualified energy conservation bonds.
Sec. 302. Credit for nonbusiness energy property.
Sec. 303. Energy efficient commercial buildings deduction.
Sec. 304. New energy efficient home credit.
Sec. 305. Modifications of energy efficient appliance credit for appliances produced after 2007.

Other Tax Credits and Changes

Sec. 101. Extension of alternative minimum tax relief for nonrefundable personal credits.
Sec. 102. Extension of increased alternative minimum tax exemption amount.
Sec. 103. Increase of AMT refundable credit amount for individuals with longterm unused credits for prior year minimum tax liability, etc.
Sec. 201. Deduction for State and local sales taxes.
Sec. 202. Deduction of qualified tuition and related expenses.
Sec. 203. Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Sec. 204. Additional standard deduction for real property taxes for nonitemizers.
Sec. 205. Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes.
Sec. 206. Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies.
Sec. 207. Stock in RIC for purposes of determining estates of nonresidents not citizens.
Sec. 208. Qualified investment entities.
Sec. 301. Extension and modification of research credit.
Sec. 302. New markets tax credit.
Sec. 303. Subpart F exception for active financing income.
Sec. 304. Extension of look-thru rule for related controlled foreign corporations.
Sec. 305. Extension of 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements and qualified restaurant improvements; 15-year straight-line cost recovery for certain improvements to retail space.
Sec. 306. Modification of tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations.
Sec. 307. Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property.
Sec. 308. Increase in limit on cover over of rum excise tax to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 309. Extension of economic development credit for American Samoa.
Sec. 310. Extension of mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 311. Extension of election to expense advanced mine safety equipment.
Sec. 312. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
Sec. 313. Qualified zone academy bonds.
Sec. 314. Indian employment credit.
Sec. 315. Accelerated depreciation for business property on Indian reservations.
Sec. 316. Railroad track maintenance.
Sec. 317. Seven-year cost recovery period for motorsports racing track facility.
Sec. 318. Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
Sec. 319. Extension of work opportunity tax credit for Hurricane Katrina employees.
Sec. 320. Extension of increased rehabilitation credit for structures in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
Sec. 321. Enhanced deduction for qualified computer contributions.
Sec. 322. Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 323. Enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory.
Sec. 324. Extension of enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventory.
Sec. 325. Extension and modification of duty suspension on wool products; wool research fund; wool duty refunds.
Sec. 401. Permanent authority for undercover operations.
Sec. 402. Permanent authority for disclosure of information relating to terrorist activities.
Sec. 501. $8,500 income threshold used to calculate refundable portion of child tax credit.
Sec. 502. Provisions related to film and television productions.
Sec. 503. Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.
Sec. 504. Income averaging for amounts received in connection with the Exxon Valdez litigation.
Sec. 505. Certain farming business machinery and equipment treated as 5-year property.
Sec. 506. Modification of penalty on understatement of taxpayer’s liability by tax return preparer.
Sec. 512. Mental health parity.
Sec. 601. Secure rural schools and community self-determination program.
Sec. 602. Transfer to abandoned mine reclamation fund.
Sec. 702. Temporary tax relief for areas damaged by 2008 Midwestern severe storms, tornados, and flooding.
Sec. 703. Reporting requirements relating to disaster relief contributions.
Sec. 704. Temporary tax-exempt bond financing and low-income housing tax relief for areas damaged by Hurricane Ike.
Sec. 706. Losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 707. Expensing of Qualified Disaster Expenses.
Sec. 708. Net operating losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 709. Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements following federally declared disasters.
Sec. 710. Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 711. Increased expensing for qualified disaster assistance property.
Sec. 712. Coordination with Heartland disaster relief.
Sec. 801. Nonqualified deferred compensation from certain tax indifferent parties.

Once again I’ve scoured the ‘net and found a full audio download of the debate.  You can find it here.

The early returns show that the anticipation for this debate was high and the television ratings reflect that.  Unfortunately, I would bet most of the viewers were disappointed because the potential train wreck they tuned in for failed to happen.  I have to admit that I started to watch the debate last night, but due to distractions around the house I pitched it and waited until this morning to listen to the audio.  I thought both candidates did their expected jobs last night and followed the medical rule of “Do No Harm.”  They both talked past each other and focused pretty narrowly on attacking the opposing POTUS candidate.  To be honest not too much of the debate stuck out in my head.  I thought Gov. Palin scored some decent attacks on Sen. Biden when she talked about where he himself had opposed Sen. Obama’s ideas while running against him.  I also thought that Sen. Biden scored some attacks against Sen. McCain that were never re-buffed.  If you do the fact check you’ll see that both of them sprang some typical talking points that were “less than honest”.  All-in-all I feel the debate was a wash and I think it will have little effect on the polls.  It might help to shore up some of the flagging Red States, but I don't think it will affect the swing states or national polls too much.  The partisans on both sides saw enough to please them and can say their candidate walked away the victor.  Those in the middle are most likely still undecided and I doubt they got enough out of the debate to swing them too far one way or the other.

 

Neal Boortz is one of my favorite talk show hosts.  He's a Libertarian and he's one of the few talking heads that really takes everyone to task.  He is also one of the few nationally syndicated talk show hosts who does not have an official podcast of his program.  So for several years now I have been recording his program from an internet stream and then playing it back for myself the next day.  Why you might ask?  Well Boortz is only broadcast on an AM radio station around here and the factory I am in has too much steel for AM signals to penetrate.

I usually just record over the program from day to day, after all at about 80MB a pop the show would take up too much storage space after a while.  So I thought since I had this space here I would start uploading my podcasts and make them available for anyone who wants them.

 

 

Enjoy the downloads and just remember you get what you pay for, so please leave complaints to a minimum.

The Files are available from the Main Page of my blog here or you can go straight to the files here.

Looks like the Senate is going to leapfrog the House and work on its own version of the Bailout Bill.  Seems like they are going to tack on a few things in hopes of bringing together some of the fringes in order to it passed.  Tax incentives are good things, Raising the FDIC insurance rate is an alright thing, the Bailout is still a bad idea.  I see this playing out with an eventual passage, it should win over the senators and enough representatives to get by.  That’s unfortunate, but that’s how it will be. 

I found it interesting as I was listening to the news yesterday and late Monday that those who decided to vote against the bill on Monday were “just playing politics” or “protecting their seats”.  However, those who stood against the public outcry were “standing up for the country”.  I found it refreshing that there were enough representatives in congress who were willing to stand on their convictions and oppose the mounting political pressure from their leadership, the white house, and the media and vote against the bill.  Unfortunately, that won’t last and a version of this bill will pass sometime this week I am sure.

Here is some more reading about the crisis:

Bailout would cause Economic Damage

Marx would love this Bailout

Wall Street is getting what it Deserves

Deregulation is not to Blame