A few more things Rush won't talk about

"It's the economy, stupid"
-James "the ragin cajun" Carville

John McCain and the Republicans tried to scare voters this past election cycle with the inanity of "Joe the plumber" and the idea that Obama would raise your taxes. In fact, I was told by one Republican to "watch my wallet" if Obama gets elected. The Repubs put on the same old broken record of "tax and spend" charges against Obama that they used against Clinton in the early 90's. I have always been fascinated by the economy and the economic ideas that are formed, shaped and crafted in the white house. So, I thought it would be fun to go back and look at what Republicans said in early 93 before Clinton's budget passed, by two votes. As we all know, the 90's were the greatest economic expansion in our nations history, so I thought it would be fun to look at a few predictions.
The Republicans predictably attack Clinton's budget before it was passed in early 1993. Take a look at some of these predictions: (they are a couple of doozeys!)

"The Clinton plan is a tax and spend old Democratic approach."
-Trent Lott
"This is a cradle-to-grave government paid for by cradle-to-grave taxes."
-Phil Gramm
"When you hear a Democrat call for taxes, do not ask for whom the taxes rises. It will rise for you."
-Bob Michel

Newt Gingrich said Clinton's economic plan will "kill jobs and increase the deficit" and Phil Gramm called it "a one-way ticket to recession" while John Kasich said it would "put the economy in the gutter." So what did all these Republican "visionaries" get right? Absolutely nothing. As always here are the facts:

1. After the 1993 tax increase on the top 1.5 percent of Americans, upper income households saw their annual AFTER-TAX incomes go up by $188,000 over the next four years.
2. In the eight years between 93-01 the GDP increased by a staggering 54 percent.
3. Unemployment dropped from 7.5 percent in 93 to 4.2 percent in 01, a thirty-year low.
4. Twenty million new jobs created.
5. The lowest inflation at 1.9 percent, in thirty years.
6. The dow jones industrial average increased 225 percent.
7. In May of 98, noted Republican Alan Greenspan, said "this is the best economy I have seen in fifty years of studying it every day."

So, when Republicans tell you to watch your wallet, you should, because it will be full of money under the upcoming Obama administration. Don't you love predictions?

"But O'Reilly told me it was Barney Frank's fault"

George Bush has been the President of the United States and stood idle as America has plunged in to the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression. What amazes me is that there are still people who will scream at you and tell you this is all the fault of the Democrats and bring out their version of the big three to scare you, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and, as always, Barney Frank. It's especially easy to blame Barney because he is gay and talks with a lisp. As always we must look at the facts:

The Republican party had the control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate for six years. Let us take a look at what happened on the domestic front

"It is in our national interest that more people own their own home."
-Bush in 2003 at a speech promoting his view of an "ownership society"

In 2003 Bush creates the American Dream Downpayment Act with the stated goal of "creating 5.5 million new minority homeowners. As part of this act Bush wants to subsidize first-time home purchasers in low-income groups. In 2003 the Department of Housing Urban development (a Bush cabinet member) begins to pressure Fannie and Freddie to support the subprime market. (Gee Susan, I guess I do know what Fannie and Freddie do) During this time the shares of undocumented subprime contracts rose from 17 to 44 percent. The Bush administration was proud of this and Bush said, "we want everyone in America to own their own home.

Now the subprime lenders loved the Bush administration. They were given free reign to pocket fat commissions and resell the original loans to wall street banks, who in turn bundled these loans and sold them as securities to investors. I had friends who were making over thirty thousand a month! Remember, it was all legal. The greed spread and as more and more people became lenders and rubber stamped the approval process. There was no law, no standards, no regulating governing body, because the government is bad, remember! So without standards in the lending industry (thanks Bush) it was like pigs had the run of the slophouse.

Not once, not even once in the six years they had TOTAL power did Bush or the Republicans set out to regulate this house of cards. So what do Republicans do now that we are in this mess? They blame the minority's for taking on these bad loans! That is sort of like building a mouse-trap, dropping the mouse into it, and than blaming the mouse for getting caught in the mouse-trap.

Now people really do believe that we are in the mist of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression because some poor black folks missed their mortgage payment. As if these "minorities" missing payments could sink companies like AIG, Lehman and Bear Sterns.

We are in this crisis due to the Phil Grahm sponsered bill COMMODITIES FUTURES MODERNIZATION ACT. This was a 262 page bill, signed into law by Bush, that deregulated the trade of credit default swaps. This allowed a 900 billion market in 2000 to balloon to a 62 trillion dollar market. That is five times the worth of the NYSE. Now, these credit default swaps was just a classic ponzi/bubble scheme where traders built their wealth all on speculation. This deregulation allowed companies to leverage their assets, borrow, get constant revolving lines of credit, and go just plain nuts.

Has anyone spotted Bush playing his fiddle?

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer

Bill Clinton must be the luckiest man on earth. Word comes out today that HRC has been offered the role of Secretary of State. What makes politics so fascinating is trying to figure out the long-term strategy of the major players. So here is what Obama could be doing with this chess move:

1. Eliminate Hillary as rival by making her part of the cabinet and thus unable to challenge him in the Democratic primary of 2012 (textbook mafia move-give your enemies a piece of the action to keep them happy) ex. Godfather, Sopranos
2. Obama's staff will be working extremely close with HRC and loyal Obama staffers will report on what she is doing
3. HRC will be frequently out of the country meeting with foreign heads of state. (bonus for Bill)
4. It will permanently neutralize the hold the Clinton's have had on the party since 1992
5. It makes Obama look magnanimous
6. Should help to smooth over remaining sore feelings of all pantsuit-wearing, bingo wing flapping, grand-slam eating, post 50's women. AKA Hillary's base

So.....you still think Palin is qualified to be President?

Holy Gez with this one! Today the news comes out, on Fox News of all places, that Palin is dangerously stupid. How could anyone ever think that this woman was qualified to be Vice-President of the United States! Let us review what we know about Palin:

1. She could not name the three countries in NAFTA
2. Did not understand that Africa was a continent
3. Stated the VP ran the Senate
4. Unable to name the newspapers or journals that she read
5. Claimed she had foreign policy experience because she "could see Alaska from her house"
6. Was blessed in her church by a witch doctor
7. Believed dinosaurs walked the earth 7,000 years ago
8. Unable to name a supreme court case other than Rove v. Wade
9. Publicly stated that Alaska would be a refugee state during the "end of days"

She demonstrated a fundamental lack of knowledge and curiosity about our country. It is the height of lunacy to think that she was prepared to commander-in-chief.

So I ask you once again, do you think Palin is qualified to be President of the United States? I will respectfully accept your retraction now. (yes, I am talking to you JJ)

In the words of Al Davis-"That's what I'm telling ya"

Live Blog from the Riley Compound

12:13 p.m. I get Erin on the phone who has been in touch with our Kennedy connection on the east coast and she is all smiles, Obama is up, and he is up Huge!

12:33 I get a haircut at Floyds and my barber, who is wearing a I voted sticker, notes my sticker and we proceed to discuss politics. I leave the barber shop looking sharp and leave my barber a 5 dollar tip. Guess who he voted for?

12:53 I get a call from Mike Jacobs. He is calling from the swing state of Colorado and informs me he is voting for McCain. He kept this one close to the vest and did not tell me who he was voting for until today. I congratulate him on his vote and tell him that I am proud of him.

1:07 I walk in to my Dad's office and tell him this election is in the bag. He is unsure and looks like a spooked badger. He asks me how I can be sure Obama will win and I smile and say, "that's what I'm telling ya."

4:04 I get home, turn on the t.v. and see Indiana is too close to call. Indiana? This is bad news for McCain, Obama will win in a landslide. Obama wins Vermont and McCain takes Kentucky. All the moonshine runners are happy.

4:30 North Carolina is too close to call. See ya McCain!

5:11 Pennsylvania goes to Obama!

5:15 Obama at 81 electoral votes-McCain at 39

5:21 Fox news goes live to Chicago where it is full of people and cheers, the McCain rally looks like a graveyard.

5:38 81% of Hillary supporters in Pennsylvania go for Obama! Once again McCains lunatic pick of Palin backfires in a state he had to win.

5:42 I predict that Rush/Hannity/Drudge will have sour-grapes over the win and will inflate and pump up the inevitable crime or problems that will arise from over a million people celebrating in Chicago.

5:44 Holy Smokes, Dole lost her Senate seat! I guess when you accuse your opponent of being "Godless" that just does not fly. Memo to Dole-this is 2008, not 1952!

5:51 Yes! Carville is on CNN. I love this guy I wish more political gurus were as classic as the
ragin cajin. If you ever get a chance you should watch, The War Room, the scenes with Carville are classic.

5:56 Why is Rove not on Fox News? Is it because he predicted an Obama win? Hmnnn....Is he at the buffet? Where is Rove?

6:19 Fox calls Ohio for Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6:28 A McCain worker is speaking of the McCain presidency in the past-tense. She goes on to call Palin a "home-run." You have got to be kidding me.

6:31 New Mexico is called for Obama. Let the landslide begin!

6:42 The McCain camp has pulled the news off the television set at their victory party

6:45 I call my brother and drink my first Red Stripe of the evening. It tastes so good!

6:57 Hang-up with Garrett as we were both reflecting Obama'a amazing life story. He came from nothing, had a life worse than Nixon or Clinton as a boy, and has now become President of the United States. Amazing indeed

7:08 Chris Shays goes down and now New England does not have one Republican in Congress. Matthews said the Palin type of Republican is now the face of the Republican party and thus New England is lost.

7:13 On NBC Tim Russert's son is reporting on the youth vote and the increases that Obama brought out.

7:17 A rumor is spreading that Oprah is out in the crowd in Chicago! Holy geez, Oprah!

7:25 Reports of Robocalls going out in the Cuban community in Florida saying Castro has endorsed Obama. Just sad.......

7:43 Obama wins Virgina!

7:46 If Dr. Phil shows up I just might puke from happiness.

8:00 Holy Cow!! NBC just called it for President Obama! I am tearing up I am so proud of my country! History has just been made!

8:07 Time to crack a beer!

8:14 Colorado goes for Obama! And Florida! It is a landslide!

8:18 McCain concedes and gives a great speech.

8:42 Jason returns home from work and wants to get a beer to celebrate the election. I reluctantly tell him I will be staying in the bunker but assure him that we are well supplied.

8:56 I still can't believe it! Obama took the high road and won!

9:00 Obama takes the stage with his family! He is calm, cool, collected and totally at ease.

9:26 Still in shock....can't really believe it!

Victory lap

I am writing this at 9:30 on election eve to get a real-time post on election eve. I am so proud of my country, who will be electing a kind and decent man tomorrow. I will always remember January of 08, as I curled up by the fire in Mammoth, when Obama won South Carolina, and my political guru, (Riley D-Manhattan Beach) said, "well enjoy it." In his mind he felt that it was not possible that Obama could beat the Clinton machine in the Democratic party. He believed that the Clinton machine would ultimately win out and HRC would be the next president of the United States. I argued vehemently that we are in a new epoch of American politics. We are a post-racial society (thank God) where we all know people of a different race or a mixed-racial background. Society has changed in a remarkable way since 1968 (see civil rights act) and in 40 years we are about to elect the first African-American candidate of the 21st century! God Bless the United States of America!

Sports and Politics

We are going to break new ground today on my blog. For the first time in the history of this blog we will deviate from politics. I want to lead off by saying congratulations to my sister-in-law, Tasha Riley, on the completion of her first MARATHON! It was an incredible and inspiring day in Santa Clarita as the entire family came together to celebrate Tasha's accomplishment. At the after party, at the Riley house, I was gazing out at the foreign luxury cars and taking note of the various bumper stickers placed on these cars. We had Obama/Biden, we had McCain/Palin, and curiously we had a Nobama sticker. As I walked in the house to grab a cold one I was struck with how sports and politics do indeed have a common thread. They both involve the unknown and thus allow the observer to form his own theories and opinions of what will happen. They both include setting a goal (getting elected or completing a marathon) and require dedication and hard work. In sports and politics you are setting yourself up for potential failure or embarrassment and dare to dream big. Tasha set a goal for herself over a year ago, trained hard, and pulled off the greatest physical accomplishment of her life. (besides
childbirth-thanks Jeff) So, as I was gazing at the bumper stickers on these high end foreign made cars I was thinking to myself how much time and energy people spend on politics and how much ANGER their is in the political process. At the risk of sounding like Dr. Phil, I have to ask, how is that working for you? We are the most prosperous country in the history of the world and we will transfer political power in a peaceful, law-abiding way. We have nothing to fear from our government, we are allowed to practice whatever religious beliefs we have, we have the best military in the world and people are literally dying to get into our country. The Riley/Trenton/Nespor/Jacobs families have all been incredibly blessed. Life is all about perspective and whatever happens tomorrow will not influence how you live your life or the relationships you have with people. Life will go on no matter who you vote for. If politics is making you a happier, more loving and compassionate person than I encourage you to continue to listen/watch as much political T.V. or radio as possible. If watching political coverage stirs up negative emotions such as anger, bitterness or resentment than I encourage you to take a break from it all. Turn off talk-radio, mute O'Reilly or Olberman, don't click on Drudge, and remember what is important in life. I love politics and I am just as guilty in getting caught up in the us versus them mentality that permeates politics as anyone. So, how do sports and politics come together? We are all one team, we are one country and we will all be proud of our new President. Hey, the Raiders lost on Sunday, Obama might lose tomorrow,(but I doubt it) but I will still get up in the morning knowing that I live in the greatest country in the world with the best family I could have! I am so lucky to have the family that I do and to be able to live the life that I have! So if you are for McCain or for Obama just remember that who you are and what you value in life has nothing to do with politics. Life will go on, and I promise, no gloating tomorrow!