Obama Marx 08

Clear Choice For President

No, the choice this election for president isn't as clear as a Huckabee/Obama contrast would have been, but the choice is still clear. Here is another forwarded email I received showing some of the clear differences between John McCain and Barack Obama.

ISSUE		JOHN McCAIN	BARAK OBAMA
Favors new drilling offshore US		Yes	No
Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it		Yes	No
Served in the US Armed Forces		Yes	No
Amount of time served in the US Senate		22 YEARS	173 DAYS
Will institute a socialized national health care plan		No	Yes
Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy		No	Yes
Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately		No	Yes
Supports gun ownership rights		Yes	No
Supports homosexual marriage		No	Yes
Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase		No	Yes
Voted against making English the official language		No	Yes
Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals		No	Yes
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
MCCAIN	0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.
OBAMA	28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)
DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN	15% (no change)
OBAMA	39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.')
INCOME TAX
MCCAIN (no changes)	Single making 30K - tax $4,500 Single making 50K - tax $12,500 Single making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 60K- tax $9,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250
OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)	Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Under Obama, your taxes could almost double!
INHERITANCE TAX
MCCAIN	- 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OBAMA	Restore the inheritance tax Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA
New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

You can verify the above at the following web sites:

http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.taxes.html

http://elections.foxnews.com/?s=proposed+taxes

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/mccain_obama_offer_different_visions_on_taxes.html

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/barack_obama/

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/john_mccain/

What I Learned From the Media About Sarah Palin

I don't like chain emails, but I don't mind posting one to a blog from time to time.  Here's one I received today.

1. From the media   -  I learned Sarah Palin's husband has a DUI conviction from 22 years ago.

On my own  -  I learned that Ted Kennedy (hero at the DNC) was drunk while driving a car off a bridge in Chappaquiddick. That same crash killed a young campaign volunteer with whom he was having an affair. Oh, and that woman was pregnant with his child.

Mr. Palin's  - (who is not running for office) DUI came a mere 4 years after Barack Obama (who is running for president) stopped using cocaine and marijuana (by his own admission in his autobiography).

Shocking - it's OK for the presidential candidate to use drugs or the party patriarch to kill someone while driving drunk yet the husband of a VP candidate should be demonized for something done 22 years ago.

2. From the media -   I learned that Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant.

On my own  -  I learned that Joe Biden's (the other VP candidate) son was paid a large amount of money as a consultant to credit card company MBNA. That same company had business before Senator Joe Biden concerning regulation of consumer credit practices.  After the company paid a hefty sum to Mr. Biden's son, he voted in favor of legislation to help that company.

That same son, Hunter, is also engaged in a legal investigation and suit for defrauding a former business
partner

Shocking - it's a crime for the republican VP candidate to have a child who's pregnant even though it's irrelevant to how she performs her job.
It's ok, however, for the democrat VP candidate while a senator to vote in favor of a company who paid his son over a quarter of a million dollars.

3. From the media  - I learned that Sarah Palin should be considered 'selfish' for agreeing to run for VP knowing about her daughter's condition.  Knowing that her public role would bring extra scrutiny on the family is selfish and she should have declined to protect her child (actually heard this on ABC)

Strange - the same people who said Sarah is selfish for running for VP did not seem to care about any impact on Chelsea when Bill Clinton had his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. That was a private, personal matter you see.

4.From the media  -  I have learned to be 'concerned' that Sarah Palin probably won't be able to manage her family and do an effective job of being VP at the same time.

Funny - I never heard anything about Hillary's ability to support Chelsea while re-doing healthcare or any of the other feminist icons who say you can balance work and family. They also never mention that Barack will have to balance time with his children while meeting with heads of rogue nations or how Joe Biden's kids don't even have a mom and will be fighting for his time while he hosts white house coffee fundraisers and sells nights in the Lincoln bedroom.

5. From the media  -  I have learned that Sarah Palin is 'too inexperienced' to be a heartbeat-away from the presidency.

Apparently taking on corruption in your own party and running a state that's the same size people-wise as Delaware (hint hint: that's where Joe Biden is from) is not really experience.

However, time spent as a 'community organizer' and less than 180 days in the senate where you've authored no significant legislation is just the type of 'change' we're looking for from the top of the ticket.

Funny - inexperience at the top of the ticket is a mantra for 'change' and 'hope' while strong practical everyday experience as the number two is cause for concern.

6. From the media  -  I learned that Sarah Palin's husband once got a ticket for fishing without a license.

I haven't heard much about the fact that if he were still a practicing attorney, the VP candidate Joe Biden would be disbarred for plagiarism not once but multiple times.

It's ok to break the rules if you're a democrat candidate but not Ok if you are the spouse of a republican candidate.

7. From the media  - I learned that Sarah Palin doesn't know much about Iraq ; in fact we wonder if she even knows where it is.

Sarah's son volunteered into the US military and is now deployed in Iraq .  I guess that doesn't count.

Sarah has spent more time with troops in Iraq (as commander of the Alaska National Guard she visited Kuwait last year) than Obama has even while running for president. In fact, when Sarah went to Iraq she spent time with the troops.  When Obama went there, he skipped a base visit to instead go work out at the Ritz Carlton .

8. From the media  - I learned that Sarah Palin is a 'lightweight' and she better be a 'quick study' to keep up with this team.

Funny, nobody is talking about how, after Barack Obama had 'visited 57 states' according to him he only had '5 more to go' or endless other stupid gaffes that expose who he really is.

9. From the media  - I have learned that (gasp!), Sarah Palin's husband was once a registered member of a 3rd party that favored states' rights (man, this is really bad stuff).

That same media has been silent to the story that when Barack Obama announced his first senate run, he did so in the home of William Ayers.   Mr. Ayers is an un-repentant terrorist convicted for bombing the pentagon.  This same Mr. Ayers said on 9/11 that he and his group did not do enough to harm our military and he wished he had done more.
During the same time as that comment, he was serving on a board with Barack Obama.  All notes and information about their serving together is now locked up by the corrupt Chicago machine and reporter access to those records are being blocked by the Obama campaign.

Pray More

Tonight in church we were challenged by Dr. Don Smith to spend 15 minutes to one hour extra a day in prayer for the upcoming election.  I didn't commit to those times because I'm not sure I can do it, but I do see the need and I will strive to increase my prayer time about the election. 

GetDropBox

GetDropBox is an application that uses the internet to keep a specific folder synchronized and versioned between multiple computers. I haven't used it, but it looks interesting. The beta provides 2 GB of space with free version.

Questions for Candidates

At http://moderator.appspot.com Google allows people to make suggestions for questions to ask the presidential candidates and questions from others can be voted up or down. I didn't expect much, but while many questions weren't very good, some were. Even some that weren't good questions were interesting for other reasons. I killed several minutes voting up questions I liked and down ones I didn't.

Here are some of the interesting ones in the for Barack Obama category:

"In his presidential bid Joe Biden placed fifth in the Iowa caucuses, much higher than the majority of US citizens, but still garnering less than one percent of the delegates. Do you foresee Biden voters providing a bump, and if so, how will you know?"

"What kind of Government data RSS feeds can we expect to come out of your administration?"

"Why is everyone afraid to say your full name?"

"What three cabinet-level departments can the country do without?"

"Exactly why are you against drilling in ANWR at this point?"

"Please explain how the inclusion on your campaign committee of the former three top executives of Fannie Mae, who were fired for allowing this mess to occur on their watch, squares with your call for change in Washington."

Presidential Debate 2 on 1

Just read this article on the moderator bias in the Palin-Biden debate. It was interesting to see someone delineate the bias I see pouring out on almost every presidential debate that takes place including this one.

The Commission on Presidential Debates that has organized the presidential debates since 1987 is technically a non-profit, non-partisan 501(c)(3), but like every organization they are as bias as their members and sponsors. They posted their 2008 sponsors as follows:

Anheuser-Busch Companies
BBH New York
The Howard G. Buffet Foundation
Sheldon S. Cohen, Esq.
EDS, an HP Company
International Bottled Water Association
The Kovler Fund
YWCA USA

I didn't see anything about how the moderators are choosen, nor did I see any indication of how much influence the candiates have over the selection. In any case it seems to me that conservatives should do something to keep these debates from being a two on one match.

Joe Biden the Conservative

It is interesting to me that during an election cycle liberals paint themselves very much like conservatives. While conservatives do somewhat lean toward the left as well, the difference in how much is striking. Liberals go so far as to starkly contradict their own voting record.

Take the recent vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Biden said Americans earning less than $250,000 wouldn’t see higher taxes, but the Obama-Biden tax plan would raise taxes on individuals making $200,000 or more.

Biden said McCain weakened regulation on Fannie May and Freddie Mac, but he actually called for more regulation on Fannie and Freddie institutions supported strongly by librerals and that fund liberal campaigns.

Finally, Biden said he has always been for clean coal, but his voting record shows that he consistently votes against clean coal.

There are a few issues such as abortion where a liberal does not try act entirely like a conservative. Perhaps these are issues that feel the strongest on or perhaps realize they can't hide their opinion, but on matters such as taxes and energy I think liberals realize that being for higher taxes and against sound energy policy will never be politically viable.

Is Worthy?

This blog started as a question from by brother Michael about the difference between Facebook and a blog. In explaining them to him I discovered that he was more interested in a blog than in a Facebook account for his missionary deputation. Finding that necessitated that I find somewhere for him to put a blog, which led me here.

I had actually thought about blogging before this, but didn't think I'd have the time. I'm still not sure.

Naming the blog was the first challenge. I wanted something short, but interesting. After considering several things along the lines of Christianity, conservatism, computers, and such I finally landed on Is Worthy.

It somewhat sounds like a name for a programming function, so that gets the computer angle in. It is a biblical reference from Revelation 5:1-5 that refers to Jesus Christ as the only one found worthy. It also is a general question that could be applied to anything as in "Is this worthy of my time", "Is this a worthwile activity", "Is this worth the cost?". These are questions we should be asking about everything we do.