Rudy Giuliani visits Wilkes-Barre today!

John McCain and Sarah Palin Trick-or-Treaing in NEPA

Carney gets "Hack"ed in debate

Last night's debate no doubt consisted of a series of jabs and wild punches that would have made the venue seem more appropriate in an ECW cage. There was absolutely no respect between the two candidates, and both made it apparent that they were out for blood.

Chris Hackett somehow seemed to continually get under Carney's skin. Carney often seemed a more than just a little irritated while answering questions and providing rebuttles. I give credit to Carney for being to still stand up and throw a few good punches of his own, though.

I cannot and will not call the entire debate a complete slaughter of Carney, as Chris Carney did have his good moments and had many opportunities to throw a few punches. Carney won the arguments around earmarks and the overall political process. It wasn't his experience as a freshman Congressman, though. Don't forget that Chris Carney was a professor of political science at several good universities. Someone in Hackett's campaign must have forgotten to bring that up to him. As a result, Carney danced around Hackett when it came to these issues. Hackett's campaign should have prepped him better in these areas or advise him to stay away from them altogether.

Outside the arguments surrounding political processes and the attacks on Hackett's tax liens, Carney clearly was getting beaten down in this debate. Here's how:

Hackett clearly won the arguments stemming around economics. As an MBA, he has a clear understanding of textbook economics and its real world application. It should be no surprise to anyone that someone with these credentials could stand his/her own ground in this realm.

Hackett threw some strong punches that made Carney look like a liberal when Carney tried to defend himself, especially when exposing Carney's records on earmark spending. Even though Hackett didn't win the earmark argument, he did indeed paint a picture that Carney enjoys wasting our tax dollars in areas such as "a race horse farm in Kentucky" and "salmon fishermen in San Francisco" - Carney admitted in the debate that he will continue to vote yes on earmark spending. As a side note, Carney, if you like to throw around our tax dollars why didn't you throw some in your home district's way? Several million went to his home district in Iowa but not a penny went to the 10th CD of PA.

Carney's fatal mistake that the Hackett campaign should take advantage of and go aggressively on is that of how Carney thinks we should resolve the the social security crisis (that within 10 years there will be 3 working people for every person receiving social security). Carney clearly stated that "we should put people back to work." The Social Security issue above is a direct result of the retirement of baby boomers. Is he insisting that retired people go back to work and that baby boomers don't retire (or if retired go back to work) so that we can preserve social security? Way to go Carney!!!

Holy Shit. If I were running against Carney I would have been all over that statement last night and dig a 6 foot hole for the Carney campaign. Then, I'd follow up with aggressive advertising to put the nail in the coffin. For the 5 people that watched this debate, I hope that they decided to vote against Carney.

Happy Halloween

Barletta Beats Down in Debate

Lou Barletta proved himself to be well scripted in last night's debate, and he didn't seem to hold back any punches either. He certainly surprised me by portraying himself to be a well informed candidate.

Uncle Paul, however, had a central theme: "I did many things in the last 22 years. Anything good that came out of Congress was solely my idea. I deserve credit for all the good ideas. But for all the bad things that came out of Congress I had nothing to do with any of it."

The high point of the debate was when Uncle Paul also showed off his illustrious ignorance (and I'm paraphrasing here): I am Paul Kanjorski. I've been in Congress for so long that I have my own stall in the men's room and my but cheeks left a permanent mark on my seat. I can do whatever I want, get whatever I want, and give you whatever I want because I have been around for so long. If you're not aware of how Congress works, I'll tell you. It works on seniority. Even if you think you don't want these things, I know better than you and I know you want me to continue to provide you with all the goodies like an inflatable woman (I mean damn), wasteful project spending like we see at the cesspool (Susquehanna waterfront), and a choo-choo train to New York City (of course I'm only blowing smoke here). Lou Barletta won't be able to get you any of these things as a freshman Congressman.

Paul Kanjorski is out of touch and he has to go. Initially, I wasn't crazy about Lou Barletta and I still think he'll be a puppet in Congress (to be re-elected he will have to be one for a while), but Lou proved to show himself to be somewhat of a quick learner last night impressing upon me that he knows more about what's going on on the Federal level than just the problems caused by lack of illegal alien reform. After watching last night's debate, I feel more comfortable with Lou as a representative for the 11th District.

Congratulations Phillies

I know it's not a blog about baseball, nor am I trying to mimic Gort, but I know that there are a lot of Phillies fans out there in cyberspace who just watched a Philadelphia team make it to a championship and not blow it.

I admit I was trying not to get to excited about the series and I expected the Phillies to somehow find a way to lose but am happy to see the Philadelphia Phillies win a pennant in (correct me if I'm wrong) 25 years. Thanks to Gort, I am now corrected to restate that the Phillies haven't won in 28 years.

Obamessiah TV

Senator Barack Obama wasted millions of dollars on an infomercial, a move that I haven't seen since Ross Perot tried to run as an independent in 1992. After watching this entire obamination and nearly throwing up my dinner, I saw a half an hour of 70% bullshit and 30% of flip-flopping.

My favorite flip flop is when he tried to convince the American people that he will not make a perversion of our military. He tried to make himself sound tough against terrorism. Mr. Obama, inviting Ahmenidajad, Putin, and Ill for a coffee table talk is not being tough on terrorism.

My predictions for the three major races on Tuesday

McCain and Obama will be a very close election, decided under a 5% margin. This one's still too close to call. My guess is that Obama will win with a slight advantage unless McCain pulls some major miracle out his ass. Obama has the media behind him, and the voters either are just too stupid to recognize that Obama's not ready to lead or just don't care because they really feel that he's the chosen one and that Biden's a prophet.

Kanjorski will lose to Barletta by 8-13%. Uncle Paul made a series of errors in his campaign, including waiting too late to get aggressive, going over-aggressive, and failing to show up at key appearances. Barletta's been busting his rear end being out in public and is gaining ground. The only chance Kanjo has is if the voters in the 11th push the "D" button like they did in the last 2 Congressional elections (A number of local voters called in the Sue Henry show admitting that they forgot that they wanted a republican but were just too accustomed to hitting the D button).

Carney will beat Hackett under a 10% margin. Hackett's campaign in the general, much like the republican primary races in the 10th, was just a disgrace. He just didn't run a strong enough campaign.

The Liberal Solution to the Credit Crisis

Mark my words! This will happen in an Obama Presidency with a liberal Congress:


Foreclosures are going through the roof. People losing their jobs in this economy. Energy costs are soaring. The list of problems that we as American face is endless, but these are just as few.

The credit crisis is causing our market and economy to go down the toilet, and all we got so far were bandaid solutions and bandaid proposals. Real working solutions that would appease the masses afflicted, DC libs, and the media will come if a liberal is elected into the White House and a liberal majority is attained on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, the real proposal will be of a socialist nature.

While nobody on the Hill or from the Obama camp are discussing this solution, it isn't far fetched to see what they will come up with to control the American population (oops, I meant help what's left of the middle class), solve the credit crisis, attempt to control energy costs, and allow people who are in threat of foreclosure (because they bought houses they couldn't afford) to keep their homes. Here's what they will come up with:

Legislation will be introduced and passed that will allow the federal government to buy the distressed properties and allow those who bought the houses that they had no business buying to remain in their homes by issuing new favorable terms.

Doesn't sound bad? Look at the specifics of the plan when it comes out:

• The federal government buys your home and pays off your mortgage. In exchange, you sign a lease-to-own agreement. To make this attractive, the government will probably lower your payment by 50% but stretch the length of payment to 60+ years. Desperate homeowners about to lose their houses would probably bite hook, line, and sinker
  
• The government will mandate that you make certain improvements to your dwelling to make your house more energy efficient.
• The government will also mandate the energy consumption of your home. In other words, the government will tell you how much in utilities you're allowed to consume. If you go over that amount, you'll be fined.

If you think I'm crazy, think again. Do your research. See how the Eastern Block was run up through the 1990s. An Obama Presidency and liberal Capital Hill is one step closer to socialism. This translates to one thing: Our country's going to hell, and we can't even afford the handbasket.

Still undecided who to vote for? There is a third candidate

At least she can do better than this

Joe Biden gets angered by tough questions

Finally, the dems get tough questions in an interview.... and this is how they respond

I know this has nothing to do with politics, but it's funny

Obama's internal polling shows liberal media slant

The liberal media has already called the election and claims that Obama is measuring the drapes in the White House. So, why does his internal poll show only a margin of 2%?

The fact is he knows he's losing in the polls which is why he's starting to play the liberal playbook.

Another possible blotched attempt to fix the economy

The Federal Reserve introduced... a new program to finance the purchases of assets from money market mutual funds as the government continued to search for ways to battle a severe credit crisis.

"The short-term debt markets have been under considerable strain in recent weeks as money market mutual funds and other investors have had difficulty selling assets to satisfy redemption requests," the Fed said in an announcement of its new effort.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. was chosen to run five special funds that will buy certificates of deposit, bank notes and commercial paper from money market mutual funds. The Fed will lend up to $540 billion to the five funds to support the effort.

Fed officials said that about $500 billion had flowed out of prime money-market funds since August as investors began to worry about their ability to redeem their investments. On Sept. 18, the Treasury Department announced it was tapping a $50 billion Treasury fund to provide guarantees for the assets in the funds. The new Fed initiative is designed to bolster the funds further.

This is just another blotched attempt to fix the credit crisis. we all know that many banks, insurance, and financial institutions offer money market and annuity products - which were at one time considered relatively safe investments - at higher interest rates than CDs and savings accounts. Have you ever wondered why the interest rate is higher on these investment products? They're backed by high-yield government bonds, corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed securities. Many of these high-yield government bonds are from developing countries, such as Brazil, or are traded in currencies where the future foreign currency prices are expected to jump higher than the US dollar. A good chunk is invested in FNMA while a tiny percentage is thrown into US Treasury notes. The investment in high yield corporate bonds - although small - is often made in companies with an investment grade AA, B or lower (in finance terms, AA or B would be comparable to a mid-to-high 600 to low 700 credit score). Let us not forget the mortgage backed securities from the big lenders. Banks and investment companies loved buying these loans, cashing in the high interest, and sharing the rewards with holders of annuities and money market accounts. In other words, some of these investments made by banks and investment companies would yield 11-13%, give investors of annuities and money market accounts 5-7%, and pocket the difference.

So, how do I know this? You might be wondering, so I'll tell you. Before 9/11, I worked for an investment/insurance company managing the operations staff responsible for pricing securities. Our department worked closely with the traders, so I learned all the trade secrets of the big investment companies currently seeking bailout.

With the exception of the moderate investment grade corporate bonds and the US T-notes, the investments made by these banks were poorly made, but the people who could afford to buy annuities and money market securities enjoyed the high interest rate while it lasted. Now they're trying to sell off their annuities and money market accounts for fear that they will lose their shirts... and the Fed wants to buy these investments and repackage them as something else.

Obama Lies about Relationship with Bill Ayers

Barack Obama was employed by Bill Ayers, when Obama served as one of the founding members on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge: Bill Ayers wrote the grant and founded the organization.

So, how does Obama not know Ayers personally?

Obama Lies in debate

In the debate, Obama clearly stated that he voted against the bill because there were already laws in place to care for babies born in late term abortion. This audio catches his lie.

..and people want this schmuck as President?

Allelujah

Since nobody gives a sh*t, his associations must be a joke

The credit crisis: let the healing begin

Kanjorski Chicken!

Paul Kanjorski skipped out on a forum with Lou Barletta last night, claiming he had a scheduling conflict.

Please repeat after me: *Cough* *Cough* *Bullshit* *Cough* *Cough*

Uncle Paul's proving himself to be another Washington elitist who's too good to be speaking with the people. But don't expect an apology from Uncle Paul. Remember what the NEPA's democrat dictator (Let's call him dick for short) said: "I don't apologize to anyone!"

I'm not a fan of Lou Barletta. I can't pull the lever for someone who doesn't understand the Constitution. At the same time, Uncle Paul has to go. In this race, (fortunately, I don't live in the 11th) I am undecided. I'm not convinced that Lou Barletta will be the independent republican he is painting himself to be. His lack of knowledge of the Constitution leads me to believe that he will have to rely on other GOP representatives in DC on key issues and eventually cave into the in-crowd if he is to get anything done. If he doesn't cave in, he will be a one-termer should he beat Uncle Paul.

Paul Kanjorski isn't really pushing to win this election. I don't think he knows how to fight-and-win a re-election campaign. He thinks as long as he outspends the other opponent, recycles old ads, and portrays himself to be busy by not keeping public engagements (it's a farce: he repeatedly cancels engagements where he is scheduled to appear to make himself look like he's busy working for you in DC when in reality he is afraid of confrontation), Uncle Paul thinks he can win and get away with blowing our tax dollars like a call girl on coke.

Paul Kanjorski's out of touch. If he wants to win this election, he's going to have to make some appearances and actually debate his opponents. I'm curious though as to why he doesn't debate: does he think he's too good, or is it because he's too afraid?

The final Presidential Debate

I know I'm late putting this post up, but I've been on the road all day and finally had a chance to sit down at the computer and relax while inhaling some BK.

I don't care what the political pundits in the liberal media say, I don't think Obama won the presidential debachle. I have to give the win to Joe the Plumber.

McCain's performance last night can be compared to a bottle rocket. He started off strong, made a crack, and fell softly to the ground. At first, McCain was aggressive and for the first time I thought that Obama was going to have his ass handed to him, but McCain just didn't follow up on the jabs leaving Obama unbruised. Compared to the previous presidential debachles, McCain did a little better but I was still disappointed.

Obama looked like a deer caught in headlights for most of the debate and spoke as if he were caught off guard for the first 30 minutes. Other than having to be on the defensive most of the night and having no capability of taking control of the debate, Senator Government merely stuck to his usual playbook: talk in circles and don't answer the question. Because that's exactly what America needs!

The candidates debate again

...and this was one pitiful debate. Neither one of the candidates said anything new or significantly unique outside their normal talking points. The debate neither hurt nor helped either candidate's campaign last night. It was a total joke and a big disappointment.

I had to take a picture of this while in DC

As an accountant, I had to pay homage to the beaurocracy that pays my bills:

The non-political Washington, DC continued

The Wall

The non-political Washington, DC continued

The Korean War Veterans Memorial - now they're no longer forgotten, and neither is the war.

The Lincoln Memorial

The greatest joy I had this past weekend was teaching my daughter about some of the greatest Presidents of our nation. Before this trip to DC, she only knew Lincoln as the guy on the penny. After this trip, she knows him as the man who started the equal rights movement for minorities. Even though he wasn't the first President to acknowledge that no matter what one's color is that person is human and should be granted the same rights as white people (read Adams' memoirs), he was the first one to do something about it. I often scoff at politicians when they discuss Lincoln and his greatness because few have the guts to stand up to do what's right. Here is a man who went to great lengths to do what was right and knew the price tag that came with doing the right thing.

WWII Memorial Continued

The World War II Memorial

The first time I've ever been in DC, the Vietnam War Memorial has been completed for 4 years and I was in 8th grade. It was a somber place to be then. There was a deathly silence that overshadowed the place as I walked by. Veterans of the Vietnam War were there shedding tears over their fellow combatants who never made it home. Friends and family members of those who lost their lives were also there. I'll never forget seeing one of my teachers crying over the loss of his brother as we laid a wreath next to the memorial. He said it was over 20 years he was gone and this was the first time he cried over it. He mentioned the word closure, and I really didn't know what that meant back then.

This time around, I was fortunate to visit the WWII memorial for the first time after has been completed for 4 years. This was also a somber place to be, but unlike the Wall there was also a lot of happiness. There were many veterans who visited this memorial, some of them in wheelchairs. They, too shed tears over the loss of their fellow men. Many began to cry as my wife, children (my 7 and 3 year-old) and I thanked them for serving our nation and protecting our freedoms. The one gentleman simply replied: thank you for remembering. I finally understood what my teacher meant by the word "closure" 20 years ago.

The non-political Washington, DC continued

Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to go inside it.

The non-political Washington, DC continued

Various pics of the White House, or as my 3-year-old son calls it: the John McCain House

The non-political Washington, DC continued

The US Treasury Building

General Pershing's monument

This guy, in my opinion, is one of the best generals we have ever had in the 20th Century, as Patton even looked up to him.

The non-political Washington, DC

I just returned from another weekend getaway. This time I took the family to Washington DC. So why Washington? My 7 year-old wanted to learn more about the Constitution, our founding fathers, and why she has a right to tell her fellow 2nd graders that "Obama sucks." As a side note, she was taught this year that the Constitution is a "piece of paper." She even had the guts to tell her teacher that if Obama wins she moving out of the country.

As we strolled along all the tourist spots in DC, I gave her a crash course in patriotism. I think she has a stronger sense of what it means to be an American after visiting the nation's capital. She learned about WWII, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, our founding fathers, and - most importantly - that our Constitution is more than just "a piece of paper."

In the posts to follow, I will share some of the photos we took while in the DC area.

Check this one out!

http://theamericansentinel.com/2008/10/03/barack-obamas-own-worst-enemy-musical-parody/