The true republican agenda is coming together rapidly and it has nothing to do with the Pledge to America.

From the moment President Obama was sworn into office, right-wing conservatives made it crystal clear their Agenda was going to be one of “Obstructionism”. Recall, in Jan. 2009, Rush Limbaugh expressed his hope that Obama fails. One month later, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proudly embraced Limbaugh at a conservative conference. We have the Waterloo comment on HCR, the tone was set.

The republicans have opposed;

Virtually every Bill on creating jobs, tax cuts to small business and creating much needed capital

Health Care Reform

Financial Reform

Unemployment Benefits Extension

National Defense

Disclosure Act

DADT and the Dream Act

9/11 First Responders Bill

And there over 400 Bills currently being held hostage in the Senate.

The recent “Citizens United” decision that has destroyed the very fabric of our political process by allowing our country to be sold out from under our feet to the highest bidders, Foreign or Domestic and the new revelation that this may have been an inside job by the Supreme Court to begin with. See my post on FT Yesterday. The corruption, hypocrisy, lies and outright hate of President Obama is very clear.

Believing that the Republican strategy of opposition has played to his political benefit, McConnell is pledging to do more of the same if Republicans win back the Senate. In an interview with the National Journal’s Major Garrett, McConnell candidly acknowledged that he feels his “single most important” job is to defeat President Obama in 2012:

MCCONNELL: “We need to be honest with the public. This election is about them, not us. And we need to treat this election as the first step in retaking the government. We need to say to everyone on Election Day, “Those of you who helped make this a good day, you need to go out and help us finish the job.”

NATIONAL JOURNAL: “What’s the job”?

MCCONNELL: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president”.

And to make it worst, in typically republican fashion, the republicans are in their rhetoric, claiming they want to work with President Obama over the next two years.

These problems of greed, power lies, hypocrisy etc. have been with us forever in politics, but I cannot remember a time in which it has been so concentrated in just one party, the Republican/Tea Party.

For sale: YOUR government. $2 BILLON (OBO)

Remember to vote, folks. Also remember: the Left = 'do unto others' and the Right = ME 'First!'

Vote responsibly. Vote accordingly.

It's the economy...and nothing else really matters...

Even that crazy right winger David Corn at Mother Jones (fox news) gets it...

"The conventional take is that the president overreached, focusing on health care and climate while spending large amounts of money on the stimulus and unpopular bailouts—alienating those hard-to-please independent voters. There might be some truth in that diagnosis, but there's more to it. It wasn't just what Obama did, but how he did it. The president forfeited control of the narrative—as they like to say in Washington—because he blew several specific opportunities."

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/obama-stimulus-story-david-corn

With the midterm election one week away, it is important for every voter to think carefully about their candidates but to also remember the past. This election year is far from predictable.

Last week, I posted a bit of President Reagan's legacy. There were the usual negative responses and claims that I had no numbers in it. Laughable since it was full of numbers and percentages applicable to the years he was president. The truth is that anyone under age 45 to 50, probably has little personal memory of the Ronald Reagan years; they only know what they've been told and the GOP has been myth building.

President Ronald Reagan turned this country from a creditor nation to a debtor nation with his massive and unsustainable tax cuts (he subsequently raised taxes every year of his presidency except the first and last but the damage had been done); he grew the size of government and he left a legacy of massive debt for his successor, George H.W. Bush. Reagan's debt made it difficult for Bush 41 to take the critical action necessary to get us out of a recession.

President Clinton left George W. Bush with a budget surplus the national debt was decreasing. Bush 43 squandered the progress made to undo Reagan's legacy with massive, unfunded tax cuts. America and President Obama were once again left with a GOP mess to clean up.

My point in repeating this information--elections have consequences. The republicans have NOT learned their lesson about fiscal responsibility today any more than they learned it during the Reagan years. The republicans promise the people what exactly? We have a few clues from various GOPers threatening to investigate and impeach President Obama. We have clues from Boehner who said they will not do anything different from what they've been doing.

Minority Speaker Mitch McConnell gave us the best clue yet in his recent words: "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one term president." That's the GOP plan and what that really means is this: do nothing to fix the struggling economy, do nothing to solve the huge problems that have been postponed for decades, do nothing for the people--just attack, disrupt and stop President Obama.

VOTE. But think carefully, do we really want to repeat the legacy of Reagan-Bush 41 and Bush 43. Do voters really want to return to old and stale ideas that failed miserably and have been proven to fail? Elections have consequences, the climb up from the massive economic disaster left by the GOP has been long and difficult but we are getting there. Now is not the time to let republicans do what history proves they always do.

A very interesting report is on Tax.com. It opens with the following:

One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing -- not one cent -- in 2009.

The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston.

It's not just every 34th earner whose financial situation has been upended by the financial crisis. Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined -- except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.

I have been writing about how the economic divide is increasing, it is worst than previously thought. Read the entire article for yourself.

First Read: "Despite the polls and predictions of big GOP gains, there is a visible path to Democrats holding on to the House. It's a tricky path, but it's a path we've seen traveled before in politics (John McCain's presidential primary in '08), sports (the Red Sox vs. the Yankees in '04), and even movies (the blackjack scene in "The Hangover") -- to win, you have to run the table."

__________

Well, at least THIS made me smile. C'mon America!!!!!!!

Joe Miller’s Alaska security detail tied to extremists, had expired license

By Rachel Rose Hartman

Alaska Senate GOP candidate Joe Miller's security detail, Drop Zone Security Services, made headlines this week for http:/news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101018/el_yblog_upshot/senate-candidates-guards-handcuff-journalist-after-event">detaining a journalist at a Miller campaign event.

William F. Fulton, the owner of Drop Zone, is a local commander and "supply sergeant" of the Alaska Citizens Militia, http:/palingates.blogspot.com/2010/10/revealed-joe-miller-hired-security.html">Palingates blog reported Wednesday. The blog identifies the militia's leader as Norm Olson, the man identified last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center http:/www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/splc-report-return-of-the-militias">as a "radical among radicals" who had founded the extreme Michigan Militia before setting up shop in Alaska. The center reports that Olson drew widespread attention for stating that Oklahoma City bombing conspirator http:/www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/09/16/olson-michigan-militia-leader-in-90s-back-in-action-in-alaska/">Terry Nichols had attended a Michigan Militia meeting not long before the bombing.

______________________________________________________

Okay now just exactly who is it we should watch for pallin’ around with terrorists? If we ‘ve been listening to a certain agitating diva from Alaska for the last two or three years they would have us believe that the folks up there have a special insight into the issue of who is pallin’ around with terrorists and who isn’t. Shucks according to some of those folks we should vote and evaluate candidates based on certain nebulous connections to terrorists and terrorism that exist only in the fevered minds of the paranoid and conspiracy theorists. So you’d think that the folks up in Alaska would recognize one when they see one wouldn’t you?

My definition of a terrorist is somebody that would be willing to do bodily harm to their fellow citizens in an effort to further their agenda either religious or political. To my way of thinking Norman Olson is a terrorist. He has advocated the use of violence to further his agenda. He and his followers have practiced and rehearsed violence against his fellow citizens and their agencies. He was associated with the worst act of domestic terrorism that has ever occurred on American soil. The only difference between the mindset of Norm Olson and a Taliban Militia Commander in Afghanistan is that old Norm doesn’t get out a prayer rug 5 times a day and pray towards Mecca. I don’t think that a majority of the Worlds people would recognize the religion that either of these terrorist groups practice.

So it would seem that Mr. Miller doesn’t just pal around with terrorists. He hires them, supports them and parades them around the country in plain view. The connection isn’t nebulous it’s very overt and documented. Now I can’t vote in Alaska. I can only ask you’ll folks up there to do the rest of us here in the Lower 48 a small favor. You’ve got two other candidates for this office. Vote for one of them and keep your terrorists at home. The rest of us down here have got enough problems without having to deal with them too.

So i just saw that Chicago has a Tornado warning issued.. Although i dont like your politics. I do hope you all keep your heads down and stay Safe..

I can't wait for November 2nd..

Rand Paul TEA Baggers... violence... really? Was all that necessary? Not surprising though. That's the TEA Baggers, violent, bigoted, racist, crazy Whackadoodles.

The Surge

Jeremy Scahill discussed last night on Countdown Wikileak’s documents re: the Iraq surge. Was it a success? No. And all this time I thought it was. I sincerely thought it was a success.

What the Bush Administration orders were for “the Surge” is nothing short of war crimes.

And this says a great deal about our country. Not only do people not want to be honest, they want the GOP back in power.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Dick Rumsfeld, Blackwater.

Do the teabaggers consider themselves Christians? If so, why aren’t they up in arms over what we did in Iraq? If so, why did they show up at the rallies with those horrible signs. Why did a Rand Paul supporter stomp on a demonstrator yesterday?

The media and the GOP have successfully branded the liberals/progressives as un-American, haters of our troops, etc.

It is the liberals/progressives who care about their fellow Americans. It is the liberals/progressives who want equality for all. It is the liberals/progressives who want health care for all, who want only the best education system for our children, so they can learn the truth about our history, about world history. It is the liberals/progressives who want to make sure our senior citizens are cared for. It is the liberals/progressive who “attempted” to ask questions about why we should not go into Iraq. No one listened to them. It is the liberals/progressives who do not want war. Who do not want to send our kids to where they should not be. It is liberals/progressives who do not want to see innocent civilians killed. Anywhere.

It is not the liberals/progressives who are killing doctors.

Growing up here in MA, we were pretty much inundated with history about the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, our Founding Fathers and the Revolution. Which is fine. However, do you know we were never taught that Thos. Jefferson and other Founders owned slaves? Do you know we were never taught about The Holocaust? Aren’t these important historical lessons for children to learn about? You would think so.

Our country has a terrible habit of not facing the truth.

________________

The Page That Refuses To Turn - The New Republic

Julian Assange and his obnoxious Wiki-leakers just don’t get it: As far as Americans are concerned, the Iraq war is over, done, finished. We’ve turned the page, changed the channel, tied up the odd loose end, inserted the last punctuation mark, and moved on. And not a minute too soon: With Bush’s War barely ended, Obama’s War demands our undivided attention.

Assange is deluding himself if he thinks his dump of various and sundry classified documents relating to the war is going to distract us. He obviously hasn’t gotten the word: Now that Saddam Hussein’s no longer around, the world is an infinitely better place. ‘Nuf said.

Whether Iraq itself is a better place now that more than 100,000 Iraqis are no longer around—all of them killed in the mayhem unleashed by the U.S. invasion—is not a question that Americans are prepared to entertain. As to whether America itself is a better place given the loss of some 4,287 American war dead along with the physical and psychological suffering sustained by thousands of other soldiers and their families, not to mention the expenditure of at least a trillion dollars—well, let’s not go there.

Assange’s great offense is not to unearth deep dark secrets. The documents themselves have produced remarkably few genuine revelations. Rather his offense is that he is subverting the careful effort, already well-advanced, to construct a neat and satisfying narrative of the Iraq war, thereby enabling Americans to consign the entire episode definitively into the past.

Irresponsible contractor-mercenaries shooting confused but unarmed Iraqi civilians have no place in that narrative—as least, they’re not supposed to. Neither do similar episodes involving panicky and trigger-happy American troops. Ditto for evidence of the routine abuse of detainees in Iraqi prisons. Petraeus’s surge not the great victory it was cracked up to be? Unresolved sectarian and ethnic tensions? Indications that Iran is emerging as a principal beneficiary of prolonged U.S. exertions in Iraq? Don’t want to hear about it.

War is never a pretty thing, and the Iraq war ranks as a notably unpretty specimen, the more so the closer you examine it. To redeem the war requires that Americans peer none too closely at all that U.S. efforts have wrought in Iraq. Our general inclination, one encouraged by Republicans and Democrats alike, is to attend instead to Conrad’s “idea”—that which makes even the ugliest thing palatable.

What Americans set up and bow down before is a particular image of America itself. Central to that image is a belief in our own innocence and singularity—our chosenness. Sacrifices endured in the course of sustaining that image—sacrifices seldom touching families living in or near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, needless to say—are said to represent the cost of Freedom and to advance the cause of Freedom. And if mistakes occur along the way, well, that too forms part of Freedom’s cost.

Assange isn’t ready to write off the Iraq war as simply an instance of good intentions gone awry. He’s not ready to forgive. Although he’s unquestionably an arrogant jerk, on one point he’s absolutely right: With regard to Iraq, there’s a great accounting yet to be done. If Americans had a lick of sense, they would demand that accounting. Forgiveness and forgetting can wait.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/78620/the-page-refuses-turn

Fiscal 2010 deficit thins to $1.29 trillion
The budget deficit for fiscal 2010 narrowed to $1.294 trillion from last year's record $1.416 trillion as tax collections started to recover and bailout spending fell sharply.

The Treasury Department said on Friday the deficit came to 8.94 percent of gross domestic product for the year ended September 30, versus 10 percent in fiscal 2009.

The government called the deficit-to-GDP improvement the biggest since fiscal 1987.

Nonetheless, the budget gap was still the second-highest in U.S. history and too big to ease market demands and congressional calls for budget restraint in Washington. . .

The budget gap was $177 billion less than the Obama administration had estimated in July, with much of the reduction due to lower-than-forecast spending on financial bailout programs and higher-than-expected tax collections.

"By carefully managing the emergency initiatives to stop the financial panic and by accelerating our exit from those investments, we have significantly lowered the cost to taxpayers, bringing the costs of the financial rescue down by more than $240 billion this year," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.

"However, we still have a long way to go to repair the damage to the economy and address the long-term deficits caused by the crisis," he added.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69E54M20101016

On January 7th, BEORE President Obama was sworn in, the deficit was projected to be 1.2 Billion dollars. That is the deficit that President Obama inherited.

"The U.S. budget deficit in 2009 is projected to spike to a record $1.2 trillion, or 8.3% of gross domestic product, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

The dramatic jump to the highest-ever deficit in dollar terms compares to a $455 billion deficit in fiscal year 2008 and $161 billion in 2007."

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/07/news/economy/cbo_2009_budget_outlook/

Even with the stimulus, which provided tax cuts and created millions of jobs, the deficit is now shrinking and the economy is growing again.

President Bush exploded the deficit, not President Obama.

These are the facts. Do with them what you will.

Republican Tea Party Thugs beat up Conway supporter!! We will be lucky if the MSM gives this outrage anymore then a cursory mention. If it happened to a republican it would be wall to wall coverage for days. I guess we will have to wait till this evening to to hear from the token liberal show hosts to hear more about this.

Here's something amusing and perhaps even informative...

http://keithhennessey.com/2010/10/21/other-side/

I wonder what Obama meant with this quote: "We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back"......

Hmmmm. Wonder what would happen if ANYBODY else said this. Like say maybe a White Republican?

While I normally don't post long strings of info, this is important stuff, and lets not forget - today Tom Delay goes on trial!

Family Values Party !!!

Republican city councilman John Bryan killed himself after police began investigating allegations that he had molested three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15.

The former head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans, Michael Flory, admitted Tuesday that he sexually abused a colleague during a national convention in Cleveland last summer and pleaded guilty to sexual battery on the day his rape trial was to begin.

Brian J. Doyle, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, was arrested on 23 Polk County charges related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. 7 counts Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child, and 16 counts of Transmission of Harmful Material to a Minor.

Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after “sexually explicit” e-mails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year-old boy.

Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper was arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year-old girl on the Internet.

Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year-old girl.

Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year-old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year-old girl and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year-old boy.

Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.

Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.

Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13- and 14-year-old girls.

Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year-old girls.

Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year-old girls.

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year-old girl he murdered.

Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years’ probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year-old girl.

Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year-old African American girl, which produced a child.

KEEP REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS OUT AND KIDS SAFER IN AMERICA !

Family Values Party !!!

Republican city councilman John Bryan killed himself after police began investigating allegations that he had molested three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15.

The former head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans, Michael Flory, admitted Tuesday that he sexually abused a colleague during a national convention in Cleveland last summer and pleaded guilty to sexual battery on the day his rape trial was to begin.

Brian J. Doyle, the Deputy Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Public Affairs in Washington, was arrested on 23 Polk County charges related to the use of a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. 7 counts Use of a Computer to Seduce a Child, and 16 counts of Transmission of Harmful Material to a Minor.

Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after “sexually explicit” e-mails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year-old boy.

Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper was arrested for soliciting sex from a 13-year-old girl on the Internet.

Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year-old girl.

Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year-old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year-old girl and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year-old boy.

Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.

Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano was arrested for sexually molesting a 14-year-old girl.

Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13- and 14-year-old girls.

Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year-old girls.

Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year-old girls.

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year-old girl he murdered.

Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years’ probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year-old girl.

Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year-old African American girl, which produced a child.

KEEP REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS OUT AND KIDS SAFER IN AMERICA !

Love your children? Love your parents? Love your service men and women? Love your country? Vote Democrat!

Greg Sargent had this on his "The Plum Line" web page yesterday. Contrast and compare:

Obama said that Democrats will need to show an "appropriate sense of humility about what we can accomplish," and he pledged to "spend more time building consensus."

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, in an interview with National Journal:

"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

President Obama seems to believe, to the point of delusion, that "consensus" and compromise are still possible with Republicans. And Mitch McConnell accidentally shows what the Republicans "vision" for America is: two years of a power struggle to bring down Obama and regain power. The Republicans have no interest in governing at all.

If voters reward Republicans for two years of obstruction, the Republicans are going to take that as a mandate for two more years of the same -- except much worse, since they'll have more power to wreak havoc on the country with the House or Senate.

Do you think the recovery plan is working? The facts and figures say "Guess again"!

For almost a year now, we have been exposed to report after report stating that we have turned the corner and the economy is on the mend . . . that things are not that bad . . . that happy days are here again. There is a problem with these messages. They ring hollow at best!

The real unemployment rate (which includes all of the unemployed, not just those still collecting unemployment benefits) is at 21.7 percent. Yes, the government figures state unemployment is at 9.6 percent but that reflects only those individuals still collecting unemployment benefits. The individuals who have already collected the maximum, are self-employed but without work, or have given up looking for work after a year or more are not counted by the government. Remember when we were told unemployment would not exceed 8 percent?

A recent AP article titled "Homes lost to foreclosure on track for 1M in 2010" states the number of homes foreclosed on in 2010 will exceed 1 million. In 2009, the number of homes foreclosed on was just more than 900,000. The number of foreclosures prior to 2009 averaged about 100,000 homes. By my calculations, that is a 900% increase in foreclosures since Obama took office.No one who was even remotely honest would try to represent this as being on the right track.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index currently shows that the average price for homes in the U.S. has dropped 28% since it’s high in July of 2006. Notice that the Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. While this is a positive for home buyers, it is a huge negative for home sellers. Especially those who bought their homes within the last 10 to 15 years. Once again, a move in the wrong direction!

41.8 million Americans are currently on food stamps (up almost 23% from just a year ago) and the White House estimates that food stamp usage will increase to 43.3 million Americans during the 2011 fiscal year. Well, that certainly looks like we are headed in the wrong direction to me!

RealtyTrac released its Midyear 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 1,961,894 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,654,634 U.S. properties in the first six months of 2010, a 5 percent decrease in total properties from the previous six months but an 8 percent increase in total properties from the first six months of 2009. Does this sound as if we are headed in the right direction?

President Obama has stated that "Small Business will lead this recovery" but the National Small Business Association recently issued a report saying that more small businesses are unable to get financing than at any time over the past 17 years. Unless they can get the loans they need "we will continue to see high unemployment," said NSBA President Todd McCracken. So, the banks that have been bailed-out using billions of our tax dollars, refuse to lend money to small business but willingly gave bonuses to the same executives who made the bad investments that brought our economy to this sad point. Right direction? It sure doesn't sound like it to me!

The Congress should have been developing and passing legislation that would give companies a reason to create new private sector jobs, give companies a reason to keep jobs held by taxpaying U.S. citizens here in the U.S. and filled by U.S. citizens, and give companies a reason to bring jobs that have been sent off shore, back to be filled by U.S. citizens.

In the 220 years covering the contiguous terms of 43 Presidents (George Washington through and including George W. Bush), the Federal deficit grew to a staggering sum of 482 Billion dollars. In the first 20 months he was in office, President Obama and a Democratic controlled Congress ballooned that Federal deficit from staggering sum of 482 Billion dollars to an insane sum of 11.3 Trillion dollars (as of October 14^th, 2010). In other words, Obama and his Democratic controlled Congress spent 22 times as much in 20 months than the 43 Presidents and Congresses who preceded them spent combined in 220 years. In my opinion, President Obama and this Congress should not be impeached . . . they should be committed! If you do not believe that level of spending constitutes an insane fiscal policy, I have a bridge to Australia I would like to sell you!

Until the government realizes that the average U.S. citizen prefers a leg-up to a handout, the deterioration we are currently experiencing will continue. The bottom-line is this: Rather than taking steps that would create a job rich environment, the current crop of career politicians chose to focus on programs that would push spending (and ultimately taxes) to obscene levels. All effort at fiscal sanity has been jettisoned as programs like TARP, Cap and Trade, Healthcare Reform, Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers, Politically Motivated Wars, Bank Bailouts, and Automotive Company Bailouts have created a fiscal chasm that will likely take generations to bridge. So, the next time you hear "The recovery plan is working" or "We are in a slow recovery", question the intelligence, the veracity, and possibly even the sanity of the speaker. Regardless of which political party holds the particular seat, BS belongs in a pasture . . . not in the Whitehouse or the halls of Congress. Maybe it is time we put most of those politicians warming the seats in Washington, out to pasture so their BS doesn't seem so out-of-place . . . but that is just my opinion!

I asked my 33 year old nephew who he was voting for governor in the election and he said "none of the above." Thus, another non-voter is born. We are in attack ad season in Maine right now. It makes you hate your representative, or your potential representative, even before the election, which is really not a good way to run a state, is it?

I remember how happy I was when President Obama won the presidency. He even put his rivalry with Hillary behind him, by making her Secretary of State. He kept Republican Gates on as Secretary of Defense. For a brief time, it seems like we had comity. But the Republicans attacked the new presidency right from the get go. Yelling at the president during his first State of the Union speech was a sign of things to come. We all know attack ads work, even if the public hates them. The Republicans have basically run a two year attack ad against Obama, and it has "worked" - for them, not for the country. I'm so sick of our political atmosphere. The majority of Mainers don't want the Tea Partier running for governor, but it looks like we will end up with him, as the Independent is siphoning votes from the Democrat and people like my nephew are choosing to relinguish their right to vote. It's not good folks, this is not good.

If the GOP so weakens Obama to make it clear that he cannot seek a 2nd term, the GOP may just be inviting their worst nightmare - Hillary in '12. There isn't a Repub alive that can even stand in her shadow.

 A very simple question to all. NOT an original one, but as the election draws near I am interested in opinions.

Do you think Obama has DIVIDED THE NATION?

Vote Republican ... it cant get any worser ..we got to start up with some new ones in office.

The similarities between the initial violent acts of the German Nazi Party, and situations like this, are striking. I no longer feel safe as Joe Citizen, in my own country. I'm not even a Beck fan!

First Read crew...kudos on the analogies...particularly the "Hangover" analogy. Funniest movie I've ever seen. I always appreciate your subtle humorous references.

So, Mark, Domenico, etc...when I watch ESPN NFL Countdown and similar shows, it's always interesting to see who the announcers predict will win. It doesn't mean its going to happen, but it makes things interesting. Any chance you guys will be releasing your Election Day predictions? :-)

Everyone else...get ready for a crazy week.

Personally, I don't know how anyone can continue to support Obama, when he is a "New World Order Globalist", exactly like his predecessor Bush. Obama was in lock-step with the Bush administration on the bail-out and then turned around and committed billions more to the wars in the middle east. Let's face it Bush started the mess and Obama is hell-bent on the further destruction of this country by bowing to the Federal Reserve policy of pumping trillilons of dollars of "fiat" into the economy. I have not seen one, so-called progressive policy out of his administration. Obamacare was written by "Big Pharma" and insurance giants. There is and will never be a "public option" Obama is not a socialist, he is a Globalist, a New World Order puppet, and uses the very same "tyrannical tool box" handed down to him from Bush, ie--Patriot Act, Warantless Wire-tapping, torture and rendition. The real war is right here at home!! And it is being waged against the American people!! Nothing has changed!! It has NOT changed with Obama and will likely not change with any power structure eminating from inside the beltway!!

It's morning in America. Ooops, wrong campaign.

I feel your pain. Ooops, wrong president.

Read my lips, no new…The heck with that one.

He can take his endorsement and really shove it, as far as I'm concerned.

Ah, that's the one I was looking for. During a campaign season that has given us whores in California, witches in Delaware and that Aqua Budda thing working in Kentucky, this line from Rhode Island Democrat Frank Caprio sweetly captures the Democratic predicament: who needs an endorsement from a guy who's so out of touch he's still blaming bad PR for all his troubles.

When you think back to two years ago, it really is incredible to behold where we are now. The Republicans were road kill back then, looking at an extended stay in the political wilderness. But in a life-is-stranger-than-fiction twist for the ages, President Obama brought the Republicans back from the dead. This arrogant man singlehandedly energized a fervent opposition movement that will not rest until every one of his misguided policies is swept into the dustbin of history where they belong.

Oh wait, the Dems say they are losing because the country has been unable to appreciate their magnificent accomplishments. We're too scared to think rationally. And besides that, the evil Karl Rove group (whose spending amounts to less than 1% of total campaign spending this cycle) is fooling folks into voting against their self interest. Of course, there's nary a word from the Dems about the anonymous campaign donations they received in 2006 and 2008 that fooled folks into voting for them. Nor is there much talk from them about the real heavy spender this time around – their own lovable AFSCME, conveniently enabled by Citizens United to spend as much as they darn well please..

But I digress. And ya know, it's so darn easy to digress when talking about the Dems cuz they do and say so many stupid things. Makes it hard for right thinking folks to stay on point, but I'll try my best. The Obama crowd was often fond of pointing out that elections have consequences. OK fine. But now they are learning that their approach to governance also has consequences. Their manner of governance has alienated most Americans, and the consequence will be that most Americans will not vote to return them to power.

And that's a good thing. Heck, maybe it's morning in America after all. In fact, the sun is shining so brightly I can see 2012 from my house.