"We have met the enemy and they are us."

                              (Walt Kelly, Pogo)

                       Will Class Warfare become Front and Center in America?

                  

Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer His tenure as Attorney General was concurrent with the First Red Scare, and Palmer became a zealous opponent of anarchist communists, insurrectionary anarchists, and other radicals who advocated the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Twice the intended victim of anarchist bomb attacks, the bombing and destruction of his Washington, D.C. home (which killed the bomber, Carlo Valdinoci as he was placing the bomb on Palmer's porch) undoubtedly influenced his actions in this area. His campaign against radicalism culminated in what came to be called the Palmer Raids. These were a series of police roundups, warrantless wiretaps (authorized under the Sedition Act), and mass arrests of suspected leftists and radicals, during which a total of at least 10,000 individuals were arrested. Fearful of extremist violence and revolution, the American public widely supported the raids, and outside of criticism by those apprehended, some civil libertarian groups, and the radical left, condemnation of the raids did not surface until many years later. Palmer famously predicted that Communists would attempt to overthrow the United States government on May Day 1920. He had some reason for making this statement, as the original anarchist mail bombing had been timed to ensure delivery of the bombs by the Post Office on May Day 1919. The date came and went without incident, but on September 16 of that year, Wall Street was rocked by a violent blast, later known as the Wall Street bombing. The bomb was constructed with 100 pounds of dynamite and was wrapped with metal shrapnel in order to cause indiscriminate casualties. Concealed in a horse-drawn wagon, the bomb was precisely timed to catch people leaving for their lunch break. The Wall Street bombing killed 38 people and wounded or maimed over 400, causing extensive property damage and leaving visible marks on several Wall Street buildings to this day.     (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Mitchell_Palmer )

                  Changes Are in The Air and Wall Street Is Scared.  


                                                       The Iraq War Blunder        
                                                      
                   For starters,  we have a hugely wasteful and unpopular war. 
          Only 28% of all Americans now admit that they are Republicans.  This is
          the lowest level since 1936.   34% of Americans are now declaring their
          independence of both parties.    13% more of independents are leaning
          to Obama.

                  

                      When one might think they would be way ahead, why do only 37%
           of Americans freely identify themselves as Democrats?  The main reason
           I see is that Pelosi Democrats in Congress look like utter phonies and
           spineless wimps to progressives who want an end to this unpopular war.  
           Democrats won a majority in 2006 and had a clear mandate to end Bush's
           very unpopular war.  But they have refused to stop funding the Iraq war,
           for fear of seeming "unpatriotic" with troops in the field and for fear of
           losing campaign contributions from the military industrial complex and
           for fear of losing support from the powerul American/Israel Lobby
           The role of the all-powerful Israeli lobby is largely taboo in the corporate
           media.

          
                         (See Former Los Angeles Times coloumnist and founding editor of
                                Truthdig.com's Robert Scheer's THE PORNOGRAPHY OF POWER: How the
                                Military-Industrial Complex Ruins America and Endangers the World).

                   Republicans and John McCain both look like they not only lack
          good judgement in the first place; what is worse, they would sacrifice
          thousands of American troops rather than admit their own mistakes
          about Iraq.   McCain was, of course,  a big booster for the war in 2002
          and 2003.    For example, he "absolutely, absolutely" believed the vast
          majority of the people of Iraq would treat Americans as liberators.   Now
          5 years and a million deaths later, he still backs the original decision to
          launch this biggest blunder in American history.  Amazingly, if elected, he
          sees nothing wrong with keeping troops there a hundred years. 

                 McCain learned nothing from the US war in Viet Nam.  He still
           believes that the US military should insert itself in foreign civil wars.
           Invariably, he thinks in terms of military solutions, not diplomacy
           and discussions.  His time in a North Viet Namese prison camp
           isolated him from all the lessons that others in the US drew from the
           Pentagon Papers or Watergate.  

                  McCain still stubbornly refuses to admit how poor his judgement
          was back in supporting Bush's war.    This is very scary to an electorate
          that no longer trusts Republican war-making.    Rather than admit
          his mistake, McCain Instead fabricates more lies.  For example, McCain
          falsely claims that "every assessment" justified the invasion and
          occupation of Iraq.  But that is completely untrue.  The CIA warned of
          the adverse effects this invasion would have on Arab views of
          America.  It warned that Al Quida and Sadam were not allies.  And the
          CIA clearly stated an occupation would create many new Al Quida recruits.

                The US Senate has since released its own Intelligence Committee's report
         on the White House's misuse of pre-war intelligence on Sadam's Iraq.  The
         Senate Intelligence Committee's Chairman Jay Rockefeller concluded:
                  "In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly
                presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated,
             contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American
                people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater
                than actually existed. … Sadly, the Bush Administration led the
             nation into war under false pretenses."


                                                     Uprighted Class Warfare.

                        Remember when Warren Buffet, said: "There's class
               warfare alright, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making
               war, and we're winning." (Source: NY Times)

                        The campaign this Fall will go way beyond the lies that started
               this most wasteful of unnecessary wars.  It will raise questions about how
               rich Republican insiders, especially at Halliburton, have bilked
               the US Treasury of billions and billions in no-bid, cost-plus war
               contracts, all the while bleeding the US Treasury bare.

                      The Campaign will add in the spicy seasoning of uprighted class
                 warfare to make to political stew will really boil.  Obama intends to
                 "raise taxes on the rich."   His "intention to virtually double the capital
                 gains tax will cause a massive sell-off of capital holdings - triggering a
                 full-blown depression."   So says the Chicago Tribune today.  But
                 "trickle down" is not working.  The wealth gaps are as wide as they
                 were right before the Great Depression.  How are we to pay for the
                schools, roads and bridges we need?  How else is the budget to be
                 balanced"?  Is decent public health care a universal right?

                                              Bush Protected The Very Rich

                                 
                        The new Bankruptcy law allows the Wealthy to shield their mansions.
                
                   Under Bush, the estate tax on the rich was repealed for ten years.
           This is a $1.35 trillion tax cut for the wealthy.  Republicans were
           unable to make this change permanent, before they were swept out of
           as the majority party in the House of Representatives in 2006.  In addition,
           huge tax cuts were granted the very wealthy on their investment income
           in 2003.   Those making more than $10 million/yr had their tax burden
           reduced by $500,000.   "Taxpayers, whose average yearly income was 
           $26 million,  paid about the same share of their income in income taxes
           as those making $200,000/yr to $500,000/yr because of the lowered rates
           on investment income...   (The very rich)... with annual incomes of
           $1 million or more, about one-tenth of 1 percent all taxpayers, reaped
           43 percent of all the savings on investment taxes in 2003."
           (Source: New York Times, April 6, 2006)
           

                                      Obama Would Re-Tax The Rich

                  Today at a  retirement community in Columbus, Obama told
           the senior citizens that the “tax cuts for the rich” that McCain has
           proposed would provide “essentially no benefits to the vast majority
           of senior citizens.”   He called for a Social Security payroll tax on yearly
           incomes over $250,000 and the elimination of income tax for senior citizens
           making under $50,000 a year.   Source: New York Times.).    Obama says
           he will make sure everyone has health care at taxpayer expense.
           Besides raising the capital gains tax, he would raise the corporate and
           individual income taxes for the "wealthy" and slow down, if not end, trade
           agreements in an effort to protect American labor.  He is now calling
           for a $50 billion economic stimulus plan that would include rebate
           checks for the unemployed along with health care subsidies.  

                                       Who Is The Conservative?
                         
                           
                                 
                        The Constitution has been shredded over and over by this White
           House.  Habeas corpus and the prohibition against unreasonable search,
           seizure and torture are just rights on a "piece of paper".  They claim they may
           arrest someone in the middle of the night and indefinitely detain and
           disappear any American who they see as a threat.  Wiretappings without
           warrants jump to heights never seen before.  McCain supports Bush
           here.  McCain called the decision by the Supreme Court to extend basic
           rights (like having non-military counsel,  knowing simply what they are
           charged with and being allowed to challenge their detention) to
           prisoners in Guantanamo "one of the worst decisions in the history of
           the country".  McCain and Bush would set aside the Geneva Conventions,
           making our troops vulnerable to torture and mistreatment.  They
           disregard how hypocritical and sinister it makes the US look to the
           rest of the world.  It will take US diplomats a decade to restore any
           degree of confidence in the US as a place where law and justice reign
           supreme.  (The decision by the Supreme Court was by one vote.
           We are just one vote on the Supreme Court away from Fascism.
           I would say the next election is monumentally important.  )

                                  "At Nuremberg in the wake of World War II the U.S. set the bar
                                  very high by declaring that even the Nazis, who had committed the
                                 most heinous of crimes, should have a fair trial. The U.S. and allies
                                 insisted on this not to serve those charged, but to educate the
                                 public through a believable accounting."
                                    (Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-scheer/silencing-saddam_b_37437.html )

                       True, the Democrats are always disappointing those of use
           who believe in the rule of law.  But they did force the resignation
           of Bush's Attorney General over the issue of torture in American
           detention facilities.    Sometimes, like last year, they even extend the
           powers of the National Security Agency.  They prefer to score easy
           debating points.   To foreigners, doubts and alarm must arise about the
           breakdown of the American system of checks and balances.  Nancy
           Pelosi has apparently not read Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution.

                               "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers
                           of the United States, shall be removed from Office on
                           Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or
                           other high Crimes and Misdemeanors"

             Nancy, if President Clinton can get impeached for a "blow job", why are
             not Bush and Cheney impeached for starting a $3 trillion war under
             false pretenses that causes a million people to die?  Small wonder
             the Democrats are seen as spineless wimps and are widely held in
             more contempt than even Bush.
                    
                                  (  Source: http://www.topplebush.com/cartoons331.shtml )

                                   
                                           Gas Prices and Impoverization

                                 At today's gas prices, someone can buy 1.1 gallons
                          of gas with one hour's pay at a minimum wage job.  If
                          he/she lives 11 miles away from work, the cost of gas
                          eats up the pay for an hour of his labor each day.  Add in
                          withholding taxes and soaring food costs, and you get
                          a sense of how hard it to just get by.  I've talked with
                          lots of young people who now work two full-time jobs.
                          There is sea of discontent.  No wonder, they are Obama's.

                               It's easy for economists and those well-off to say,
                          "Wait and let the free market work its "Golden
                           Hand" to solve the crisis".  Such policies in an age of
                          OPEC and oil and gas monopolies, are the height of cruel
                          and cavalier insensitivity.  The ugly truth is that the US
                          has no real energy plan, except let oil prices soar and
                          poke as many sticks in the eyes of Arabs as possible.

                              You can safely bet that $135/bar oil will fuel the
                          Fall's Presidential debate.   Conservation,  subsidized
                          weather-proofing and solorization of homes,  55 mph
                          speed limits and public transportation have been entirely
                          left out of the energy picture under Bush and the Democratic
                          Congress.  The run-up in oil prices and the Presidential Election
                          campaign will surely bring new pronouncements and
                          proposed changes.   Republicans, needing all the
                          campaign contributions they can get this year, will
                          gladly shill for the oil companies who want even more
                          profits and the opening up of drilling in more and more
                          environmentally fragile locations.  

                                                    From "Sea to Shining Sea". 
                                    Remember the Exxon Valdez  

                              McCain, or should I call him "McBush", last week said
                          to one audience he was open to new taxation on oil profits.
                          But today, seeking campaign contributions from Big
                          Oil in Texas, McBush said that this would be counter-productive. 
                          He also switched gears from his previous "steward of the
                          environment" role (as first championed by Teddy Roosevelt)
                          and urged the opening up of oil drilling offshore, even though
                          there would be not one drop of additional oil for years and
                          years, if then, from these fragile marine sources.   He
                          disregards the truth: real conservation, energy efficiency and
                          renewable energy would have a much bigger impact at
                          making America energy independent.    The amount of oil
                          and natural gas from additional leasing in the Gulf of Mexico
                          might not produce more than 47 days of additional oil and
                          four months woth of natural gas.  (Source: Sierra Club)   As
                          a swimmer and diver here in California, I find the notion of
                          letting the oil companies drill off-shore here to be horrifying. 
                          We are already over-fishing and polluting the seas to exhaustion.
                          McBush's submission to Big Oil is unconsciounably unscupulous.
                          He can't raise money elsewhere, so he goes to Big Oil!  And,
                          I learned in New Mexico in the 1970s, and it's still true now,
                          the oil companies are sitting on thousands of leases that they
                          have not yet drilled on.  Why don't they drill on what the
                          leases they already own?  The longer they wait, the more
                          costly drilling rigs are going to be.  Lastly, how do we know
                          that they are accurately reporting their production to government
                          entities and paying the correct amount of royalties.  How much
                          faith do you have that the Bush Administration is collecting
                          what the Federal Government is entitled to from oil companies?
                          See - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E0DC1F39F936A25752C1A967948260
                         
 
                                            It Looks Like McCain Will Lose
                                 
                                     If I were to bet now, I would guess that McCain will not win. 
                         The twin lead-weights of Bush's unpopular war and the bad
                         economy are just too much for McCain to overcome.  Unless
                         there is another terrorist or a new rally-round-the-flag war
                         launched by Bush against Iran, Obama is apt to win and
                         bring in many, many new Democrats to Congress.

    General Election Polls: McCain vs. Obama
                              

                                        Will The Last Republican Leaving Congress
                                         Turn Out The Lights To The Caucus Room. 

                                   The sense that this will be a bad year for Republicans
                        is causing many to announce retirement.   In the Senate, John
                        Warner, Larry Craig, Thad Cochran, Pete Domenicci and
                        Chuck Hagel are bowing out.  Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens
                        is under criminal investigation and recently had his house raided.
                        30 House Republicans have announced they will not seek
                        re-election this Fall, so far.   The average rate is 14.  Since
                        incumbents have big re-election advantages, winning 90%
                        of their elections, this is a bad sign for Republicans.
                        The House Republicans choosing not to seek re-election
                        include 3 of the 4 most senior leaders there.
                                              Rep. Trent Lott of Mississippi - former Majority Leader,
                                              Former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
                                              Rep. Deborah Pryce of Upper Arlington, Ohio
                                                                 Fourth-ranking Republican in the House last year 
                            
                                                McCain's Flaws Will Be Amplified

                                   McCain, himself, provides an easy target.  Certainly, the
                        Democrats will do their best to make McCain's legendary
                        wild temper flare before the cameras.  They will use code words
                        like "confusion" to suggest he is too old to be President. 
                        When McCain talks of Obama's inexperience, the Democrats
                        will play the Iraq War card and remind voters about McCain's
                        bad judgement in supporting the war from the beginning and
                        now the unpopular occupation in perpetuity.  (Back in 2003,
                        McCain echoed the White House's  "We will be welcomed as
                        heroes" and "It'll all be over quickly.")    He ranked 894th out
                        of 899 in his graduating class at the Naval Academy.  Obama's
                        IQ is 50 points higher than McCain's.   Most Americans are
                        tired of the present C- President and, I predict, would prefer
                        someone as President who is not a national embarrassment
                        when he speaks.  They want someone who does not say,
                        as McCain did in 2008, that he has "little understanding of
                        economics."
                        

                                     “Bomb bomb bomb, bbbbomb bomb bomb Iran”

                                                      
                                                            (Source: New Yorker)

                                   While it's very good that he can laugh at himself, as
                        for example, on Saturday Night Life when he said the
                        Secret Service's code-name for him was "Jerk", I doubt if his
                        spontaneous sense of humor will win him many votes among
                        women and older people.  Examples of his jokes show
                        a striking crudeness and bad taste:  "Why is Chelsea Clinton
                        so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”   McCain, speaking
                        to a Republican dinner, June 1998.

                                   McCain does act like a jerk. 

                McCain said the following:                       

• "Only an asshole would put a budget together like this!" (to New Mexico Republican Pete Dominici)

• "I'm calling you a fucking jerk!" (to Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley)

• "Fuck you. I know more about this than anybody in the room." (To Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn)

This is why Senator Dominici said in 2000 that "I decided I didn't want this guy anywhere near a trigger."
It is presumed by this he meant the nuclear trigger.

In speaking about whether he had ever witnessed McCain's notorious temper problem, former
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum said, "I don't know anybody in the Senate who hasn't.
Everybody has their McCain story."

                   ( http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=John_McCain )

                                                  Is McCain Smart Enough?

                                   Throw in a steady stream of McCain's untruths about
                        foreign and military policies, supposedly his strong suits,
                        ("we are now back to pre-surge troop levels" or the same day
                        he said Mosul was quiet, 30 people died from three suicide bombers),
                        his verbal gaffes, faux paux, confusions about names ("Sunni" and
                        "Shia" and which Iran supports) as well as lapses in clarity
                        where the listener must judge what McCain meant, and
                        I suspect the polls will turn more and more in Obama's favor. 
                        The last polls I saw showed Obama ahead by 4%.  So, I don't
                        see how he can win, barring an October surprise or unless
                        desperate measures are tried. 


                                       Charles Keating (McCain's Benefactor)
                                                            Is Better Known than
                                              Tony Rezko (Obama's Benefactor)     

                                    McCain has been in politics longer than Obama.  Therefore,
                        it may be assumed that McCain has more dirty linen in the
                        form of ties with special economic interests than Obama.
                        It's true that Obama got a condominium at a very low price from a
                        Chicago real estate named Tony Rezko.   Rezko and a Republican
                        businessman named Stuart Levine were indicated and found guilty
                        in 2006 of extorting millions from businesses seeking contracts with
                        the Illinois Teachers Retirement Board and the Illinois Health
                        Services Planning Board between 2002 and 2004.  But Rezko
                        is not a well known figure and the amounts were small compared
                        to the damage done by McCain's friend Charles Keating. 

                                 In 1989, Keating's American Financial Corporation went
                        bankrupt.    McCain was one of five Senators, Democrats and
                        Republicans, who had received more than a million to exempt
                        a subsidiary, Lincoln Savings and Loan, from federal regulatory
                        oversight.   "More than 21,000 investors, most of them elderly,
                        lost their life savings (in total about $285 million.) This occurred
                        largely because they held securities backed by the parent
                        company rather than deposits in the federally-insured institution
                        — a distinction apparently lost on many if not most depositors
                        until it was too late. The federal government covered almost $3
                        billion of Lincoln’s losses when it seized the institution.
                        Many creditors were made whole, and the government then
                        attempted to liquidate the seized assets through its Resolution Trust
                       Corporation, often at pennies on the dollar compared to what
                        the property had allegedly been worth and the valuation at which
                        loans against it had been made...In September 1990, Keating was
                        criminally charged with having duped Lincoln's customers into
                        buying worthless junk bonds of American Continental Corporation;
                        he was convicted in state court in 1992 of fraud, racketeering, and
                        conspiracy and received a 10 year prison sentence."   Some who
                              lost their life savings are said to have committed suicide.  Keating was released early from jail
                        (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Keating )

                                     Exchange between Arizona Republic and McCain

                        McCain and Keating were close friends and Keating took
                        McCain's family on his private jet to the Bahama for vacations.

                                "On Oct. 8, 1989, The Arizona Republic revealed that
                        McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating
                        shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with
                        the regulators.   The paper also reported that the McCains,
                        sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter,
                        had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes
                        aboard the American Continental jet. Three of the trips were
                        made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat
                        at Cat Cay.
                                 "McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips
                        until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating
                        was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433. 
                                 "When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself.
                                               "You're a liar," McCain said when a Republic
                                  reporter asked him about the business relationship
                                  between his wife and Keating.

                                 "That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot," McCain said
                         later in the same conversation. "You do understand English,
                         don't you?"

                                 He also belittled reporters when they asked about his
                         wife's ties to Keating.  "It's up to you to find that out, kids."
                         (Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/specials/mccain/articles/0301mccainbio-chapter7.html )

                                  Editor's note: There is actually much more to this story.
                        See http://www.wmsa.net/People/john_mccain/ariz-republic_chap_V_1999.htm
                        I spend this much time on this sordid affair because one of my
                        friend's mother was bankrupted by Keating and indirectly by
                        McCain and Greenspan, who took $50,000 to defend Keating's
                        Lincoln Savings and Loan from Federal regulators.


                                       The Campaign Will Get Dirty Very Quickly   

                               Republicans will decide they must use all they can to
                       discredit Obama.  They just cannot run on much of a record of
                       achievement themselves.  Certainly, it's true that Obama
                       has precious little in the way of a track record, except that
                       it's "most liberal".  The legislation he credits himself with
                       from the Illinois Senate was mostly the work of others. 
                       In these circumstances, Republicans simply must attack
                       Obama's associations and character.  They will probably wear
                       listeners out with ads featuring Obama's ministers' tirades,
                       long before the election.  They will score points about his
                       wife's lack of pride in being an American.  But Obama's
                       references to an embittered electorate ring true with
                       his supporters and will be motivation for them to vote.
                       As things get ugly, even before the Conventions, McCain's
                       truly awful words to his wife in public will get extensive
                        media attention. This will lose him votes from women.

                                Here is what three witnesses say McCain said to his
                       wife in 1992. 
                                    "Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of
                               anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving
                               McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid,
                               McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife,
                               Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and
                               consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled
                               McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up
                               there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded,
                              "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop,
                          you cunt." 
                               (Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/McCain_temper_boiled_over

                                                        
                                                         "McNasty" should not have his
                                                                      finger on the trigger that could
                                                                     start World War III. 

                                             Is McCain Sane Enough To Be President?

                                       All this nastiness and McCain, who was known as "McNasty"
                               in high school, will surely hurt investor confidence and
                               rock the stock market.    Once again, people all around the
                               world will look at McCain as they did Bush, and wonder
                               in what sense the Republicans are the party of Lincoln,
                               the Great Emancipator, and how can McCain conceivably
                               be the best Republican to run for Presidency?  Is he too
                               susceptible to irrational fits of rage?

                                      It may help investors to study the Presidential Election
                               years when a Democrat took over from a  Republican.
                               The market's fluctuations and swings, as well as TigerSoft's
                                Peerless Buys and Sells, are seen in the charts after 1941 when NYSE
                                advance and decline data became available.  The best rallies
                                occur in the fourth quarter.  Get our Hotline and Software
                                for more details.  See www.tigersoft.com

                                                                     1932- DJI
                                       Democrat Roosevelt Replaced Republican in White House in 1933               

                                                                      1960 - DJI
                                             Democrat Kennedy Replaced Republican in White House in 1961

                                                                      
                                                       1976 - DJI
                                     Democrat Carter Replaced Republican in White House in 1977

                                                                      
                                                       1992 - DJI
                                           Democrat Clinton Replaced Republican in White House in 1993


           

The extent to which the US Treasury has been                                robbed bare by corrupt government contracting                                in the Iraq War is inbelievably massive and tolerable.                                                                                    American Values Are Being Exported.