Christine O’Donnell Believes Jobs Are Created When Businesses Are Freed From Endless Taxes and Bureaucratic Red Tape.

She says so herself.

Johnson & Johnson plans to eliminate 900 jobs at Ortho-McNeil-Janssen unit

That plant manufactured children’s Motrin and Tylenol. McNeil Consumer Healthcare ran the Fort Washington plant for Johnson and Johnson, and they have just laid off 300, or two thirds, or their employees.

From: Department of Health and Human Services: Food and Drug Administration
To: Hakin Erdimer Vice President of Operations, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Div. of McNeil -PPC Inc. 7050 Camp Hill Road, Fort Washington, PA.

I first became aware of this story earlier this summer when I went to buy some Motrin at my local Happy Harry’s.. I walked up and down the shelves and was perplexed why I didn’t find some. I assumed that Walgreens must be becoming like Walmart and picking the brands they sold based on who could give them the best sweetheart deal. I went to Rite Aide instead. What, they’re out of Motrin too? They don’t even have a tag or slot on their shelves for it. Is there a recall? No one knew of any. After 4 hours, I finally found one bottle, still on the shelf of a chain grocery store, and snatched that baby up. Finally… R E L I E F…

Then I forgot about it… and I saw this….

The FDA has said it is weighing possible civil and criminal action against J&J for its actions. J&J’s CEO Weldon is expected to face sharp questioning over the manufacturing issues and also whether the company had FDA permission to conduct a soft recall of Motrin in 2009 from 4,000 stores across 40 states. It hired a contractor to send out employees posing as buyers for an eight-caplet package sold at convenience stores.Last week, lawyers for J&J said the purchases were legal and that FDA knew about them despite the lack of a formal agreement. But the FDA has said that is not the case. “Right now, there is no independent evidence that showed anybody at the FDA approved it,” said a congressional source familiar with the committee investigation. More documents submitted since the May hearing, including several released on Tuesday, show J&J directed the buyback, the source said, adding that the contractors have also submitted numerous documents.

Why were they buying back their own products? Were they trying to cover something up, or, prevent a mistake from becoming public? Is that the normal method of recalling a product, and if it is not, what was normal procedure not followed in this case?

In January, the FDA identified problems at a Johnson & Johnson plant in Puerto Rico after the company recalled Tylenol, Motrin and Benadryl products made there. The company said a chemical leached from wooden pallets into the products, imparting a musty odor that later made some consumers ill with temporary gastrointestinal problems.

Now I work around pallets all day. They do have a musty oder. But that oder stays in the wood. When I come home and take off my clothes, the same clothes which were in close proximity to those wooden pallets, they have no musty pallet oder. They may smell like BO, but they don’t smell like pallets. And you expect me to believe that tiny little pills inside a glass container, vacuumed sealed with cotton packed on top, surrounded with printed intructions, placed inside individual cardboard cases, which themselves are bundled 48 on a wooden pallet, upon opening,… carry that musty pallet oder in amounts so strong, that it gives consumers temporary gastrointestinal problems? Bullshit.

The human symptoms point to bacteria on the pills. For some reason, the line about the pallets, whether sanctioned by the FDA or not, is a dodge to deflect the true story.

It was the first of four recalls of Johnson & Johnson products in the past year, including the April 30 recall of 136 million bottles of infant and children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and Zyrtec. Those products were recalled after FDA inspectors found widespread manufacturing problems at the Johnson & Johnson facility in Fort Washington, Pa., the only plant where they were being made.

In the FDA report, linked above, the closing of the Fort Washington Plant was because the Fort Washington Plant did not ensure….the rejection and withholding from approval any raw material product that contained a “known” contamination of gram negative organisms. Translated: they knew it was contaminated with deadly bacterial organisms and sold it anyway!

Raw material lots had known contamination with gram negative organisms and were approved to use for manufacture of several finished lots of Childrens and Infants Tylenol drug products, which remained within expirations dates on the market.

Translated: Medicine for infants running a fever, with immune systems being down for other reasons, were knowingly and willingly, given a bacterial infection organism known to cause severe gastronomical problems. Is Hakin employed by Al Qaeda? Surely that could be the only reason such a callous act could occur. Or is this the new standard today’s corporate America now upholds?

In fact, Food and Drug Administration inspection reports going back to 2003 chronicle a build up of problems at the now-shuttered plant in Fort Washington, Pa., at the center of the widespread recall of Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl and other over-the-counter drugs. But it was only after a political change in Washington, that consumer protection stepped up.

Just recently, at an inspection of the Lancaster plant, inspectors wanted to know why some consumers found maximum-strength tablets in regular-strength Pepcid bottles, or mint-flavored tablets in berry-flavor bottles.

The problems were compounded by having to repeatedly ask for documents, and waiting days to receive what should have been readily available, including things as basic as an organizational chart.

Inspectors found that the plant could not ensure that drugs produced there were up to standard. Laboratory controls do not include the establishment of scientifically sound and appropriate test procedures designed to assure that drug products conform to appropriate standards of identity, strength, quality and purity,” the inspectors wrote.

(It should be noted that the newest report does not give any examples of product quality being affected by the litany of carelessness. Nor does it advocate a recall of any of the plant’s products.) What the report does note, is that no one is monitoring the operation. Records that should be accessible at a moments notice, simply aren’t there.

One common theme of the FDA report is that J&J employees frequently took days or weeks to provide records to the FDA inspectors, sometimes despite multiple requests. When the records eventually were provided, they sometimes were wrong or incomplete, the report said. “Organizational charts were requested on 06/23/10 and requested approximately 10 times before receiving full information … on 07/01/10,” read one example.

Another key point of the report was a finding that the plant failed “to thoroughly review” how product quality was affected by equipment problems that occurred during the manufacturing process.

The report tells of cases of “multiple manufacturing deviations” occurring without J&J checking for any impact on the product batches or recording what was done to fix the problems. “There is a failure to thoroughly review any unexplained discrepancy …,” the report said. “Equipment failures were not trended … to determine the scope … and the overall impact on the manufacturing process and products produced.”

The report said J&J displayed a similar lack of vigor in probing the Berry Tablets problem and looking into consumer complaints that products made at the plant were ineffective. The report said a J&J employee used the wrong testing sequence to see how Imodium EZ Chew Tablets dissolve and used the same filter and syringe to take multiple samples of the dissolved tablets. WTF?

Ok that’s the small problem. The big problem is that all corporations are doing the same thing. Why?

Could the previous years of Republican policy of instructing the FDA to turn a blind eye to malpractices in companies that were large Republican donors have anything to do with it? Could the philosophy that businesses need to be freed for endless taxes and bureaucratic red tape be the core of the problem, and not the solution?

The problems were noted as early as 2003 but no action occurred until 2009.

The approach being advocated by Delaware’s Republican Senate Candidate is dangerous to the health and safety of every American. When businesses are not regulated by our government, then we have no knowledge or method to reckon against their harmful acts. In this case, the company was just lazy. They made a conscious decision not to comply with acceptable methods of testing, and assumed no one could hold them accountable for it. In this case, your tax money was used by the Federal Drug Administration to go into a facility, investigate it’s methods, and finding several contamination issues, use it’s authority to close it down. This is a prime example where government is good. This is a prime example of why we need more government, not less. This is what happens when you don’t mind the candy store, which is exactly what Christine O’Donnell is proposing when she says do away with bureaucratic red tape. We need someone minding the candy store. We just need it.

So how does Christine O’Donnell, Republican for Senate, feel this problem should be taken care of? What is the official republican response to having bacterial infectous diseases knowingly placed in bottle of infant Tylenol drops and sold to unsuspecting consumers?

They call for an investigation of the FDA.. No shit. When bacterial contamination known to cause gastro-intestinal problems is knowingly sold to very sick and hospitalized infants… their reaction is to call for an investigation of the FDA…

Chistine O’Donnell says so on her website.

To promote jobs, we need to do away with bureaucratic red tape…… Meanwhile babies die. (But no. … we can’t kill the unborn. Let’s wait till they’re delivered,.. then kill them with bacteria knowingly left in their medicine bottles by one of our big contributors…..)

If we get caught…… we’ll spend a $1000 dollars to pay off a congressman who will then call for an investigation of the FDA ..

So if your reading this, you’re human. Let me ask you,.. how do you want your tax dollar spent? Do you want it spent on someone investigating the actual manufacturing plants to determine whether what’s popped in your mouth is clear of feces and bacterial contamination? Or do you want it spent on investigating the motives of the watchdog organization that is looking after your best interests…?

Christine is wrong on this one… Her Republican Party is out of touch with America and this: the willingness to look the other way when bacterial containments are knowingly put into infant’s medicine, and sold;…. proves it without a doubt.

So, What If Republicans Take Back A Chamber or Two?

Unstable Isotope jarred my memory with his factual statement.

One thing we’ll have to look forward to if Republicans retake the House is silly investigations. Some of them won’t be so silly, like partisan war on climate science. Rep. Darrell Issa is rubbing his hands in glee at the havoc he can cause as head of the Environmental Committee:

I then remembered the stupidity with which we put up with year after year. Nothing got done, and we had our newspapers full of nonsense because that was all the republicans gave us to talk about.  It’s funny,  two years have not yet passed, and without the constant reminder, I had forgotten all about that!

Now, … as compared to then, it seems like major actions affecting millions of Americans are being fixed.  Health Care Reform, which will become as important to our financial planning as is Social Security, are actually debated and passed.   Real problems actually get addressed; not Republican issues that serve only to  take our money away from us, turn it over to large corporations, and stick our children and grandchildren the bill.

If Republicans take back either chamber, what can we expect?

Here is their previous track record.

The Republicans’ top priority is retaining $700 billion worth of tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans,  money that “we’d have to borrow . . . because we don’t have it – likely from countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.

Republicans have “no good answers” on how to pay for their economic plans. One of their proposals, is to cut back education spending by 20 percent, eliminating about 200,000 Head Start programs and reducing student aid for college for about 8 million students.

If you like deficits, you love the Republican plan.   The president and the Democrats want to reduce the deficit, and the Republicans want to return to the policies that got us into this mess to begin with.

The last decade was about giving more and more to “The Corporations.”   Where did that money come from?  Have you checked you bank account lately? Guaranteed it came from you.  Since the Republican loss, These past two years have been about giving their own money back to the people.

The same Republicans in Congress who mentioned small businesses eighteen times in their “Pledge to America” voted against the Small Business Jobs Bill in the House on the same day..  Here’s what the Democrats actually got signed into law.

1 Businesses will be able to immediately write off its first $500,000 in equipment investment next year.
2 Investors in firms would receive zero capital gains on their investments.
3 A new Small Business Lending Fund will make capital more available to firms.
4  By expanding successful SBA lending programs,  firms will have expanded opportunities to get the loans they need to grow.

In addition to hiking taxes for 110 million middle-class families and millions of businesses, the same Republicans in Congress who mentioned small businesses eighteen times in their “Pledge to America” consistently opposed these 8 small business tax cuts that the President had already signed into law:

1  A New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
2  A New Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Workers
3  Bonus Depreciation Tax Incentives to Support New Investment
4  75% Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains
5  Expansion of Limits on Small Business Expensing
6  Five-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses
7  Reduction of the Built-In Gains Holding Period for Small Businesses from 10 to 7 Years, allowing Small Businesses Greater Flexibility in Their Investments
8 Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief to Allow Small Businesses to keep Needed Cash on Hand

With Democrats comes Hope for a better future. Unfortunately as each day passes, it becomes harder and harder to remember how terrible Life was, under the Republicans.

Castle Should Run

We were round tabling this discussion when one person said… “What if the US just gave up after Pearl Harbor?”

Valid point.

Now I’m all for people speaking their mind. I’m all for supporting the majority. And like the founding fathers, I have implicit faith in the ability of the people to sort out our problems and separate wheat from the chaff… if not the first time, then definitely over time.

Most ordinary people I know have far more wisdom than any leader I’ve had the privilege to share conversation with. Therefore I believe in the sanctity of the people’s choice. If the people voted him in, he’s there for a reason.

But that’s only if the election was fair. If someone padded the ballot box, or switched vote totals, than obviously this premise wouldn’t apply for the very reason that the choice of the people was not the person who was actually representing them.

Mike was bushwhacked, sort of like the US was at Pearl Harbor or on 09/11…Reading his interview yesterday in the News Journal, one gets a sense that perhaps this was not a fair fight…. By election laws it was, and we all have to accept the primary results. However, if Mike doesn’t run as a write-in, he is putting himself in the same position as if the United States did nothing after Pearl Harbor or 9/11….

And with Mike, it is not about winning, although winning would be nice. It would be about whether good or evil triumphed. Polls say it’s Mike’s race to lose. He actually has enough money to send every voter a personal card telling them exactly how much he’s done for them, how that will soon change for the worse, and explain how to write in his name and send the evil perpetrators back to their cardboard boxes.

If Mike doesn’t do this…. exactly then, what is he saying to future generations of Americans? ? That we should just give up when hit from behind with a baseball bat? That it’s the American way to lay down and bend over? That being a man, is knowing when to run away and hide? That brutality and tastelessness are the new American Way? That perhaps Christine was right? Castle has no man pants on? That the wishes of Delawareans don’t matter; we’ll stop immediately and do what Californians tell us? That how we brush off defeat is a better mark of character, than coming back strong and punishing the evil that befell us?

And sentences keep coming one after another… the list keeps going on…

But if I were in Mike Castles shoes, and if it were me looking over the entire scene before me… I would have no choice but to say I’m in… Oh yes, I would wait till the last minute of September 30th to do so… and I would create a smoke cloud beforehand by pretending to roll over and let bygones be bygones… …. …. and from somewhere out of the fog, then overwhelmingly, I’d strike.

I wouldn’t hold back.. It’d be my last race, it would be the one I pulled all my stops for. Every person I’d ever helped would get a personal appeal from me. Unconditional Surrender would be our rallying cry, just like for the troops of WWII… Our goal would be not just to win, but destroy the O’Tea Party forever.

Ok, Hannity O’Tea Partiers: so you were secretly prepared and yes, you overran Poland, and yes, you then went on to incorporate the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway, and even surprised France pushing their ally Britain into the water… But this time, you went too far.. You’ve taken on the United States. You’ve pissed off someone five times your size. We will Normandize you, Elbetize you, Dresdenize you, give you a Kolnectomy, Rhineantipuovertize you, Remagenisque you, and even liposuctionize your Battle of the Bulge. We will Pattontize you, Bradleydice you, and Marshall you into a corner from where you can’t maneuver.. We will take average civilians and turn them into a fighting force the world has never seen…

We will do so for the honor of America.

What kind of an America? An America where truth wins out, where decency prevails, where honesty and hard work eventually win out over trickery, skulduggery, and political assassination. You wanted to play dirty? We’ll show you how it’s done… In doing so we will show the world that modernism prevails, that decent people still run America. that the “Boehner Bullshit” is just that. It’s time to show the world what we’ve known all along.. That in America, it’s the people who run politics..Not the Politics who run the people…..

I’d tell every Delawarean… Do yourself a favor… Turn off your TV’s.. You got a question? Call me or my staff directly! We’ll talk to you… try talking back to their commercials! Where will that get you?

That stuff they’re airing? That’s not Delaware talking, That’s California money talking… That’s rich bitch snitch drug money being laundried to throw a Senate seat into supporting their snatching up of all your money… You want to keep some of your money? Call me. Call my staff… That’s Delaware talking.

Do you want reason to take on ins’hannity?

Well, it’s on. Support me. You can’t let the devil win… “

Well anyway, if I were Castle, that’s exactly what I’d do. And I would do it selflessly, not to win, but to give Delawarean another alternative between a Democrat and our equivalent of the brown shirts of the Nazi Party.

Yes, if there is still good left in America, then Castle needs to run.
If the doesn’t, then the America that came back after Pearl Harbor……. is gone.

kavipsian Response to GOP Response to Jack Markell’s Message

Here is Rick Carroll, Republican candidate for the 4th District, being set up in the puppet chair, having his strings pulled… Dare you to try not blinking before he does…

http://www.delawarefirst.org/government_and_politics/gop-weekly-message-september-17-2010/

The word “response” in his video title, is a misnomer. There is no mention of Markell, and barely any mention of the able Democratic leadership that brought open government finally to Legislative Hall. There is only one line about…”Democrats in Washington.”

So let’s get their logic. We are going to send Rick Carroll to Dover to fix what Obama has undone for the wealthiest 1% of Americans!

Here is the message.

America is overtaxed, over regulated, and undermined… hmm…

Over taxed?

This link is the chart that proves every Republican platform that says cutting taxes is what we need…. is a lie… Cutting taxes is not what we need… CUTTING TAXES KILLS ECONOMIES…

Republican response… Blah, Blah, Blah…

kavipsian economist responds with a question… (One that should be asked in every town meeting by the way) … if what you say is true, why is it that when implemented, like in the 1920′s, the Bush 1 years, and this past Republican administration, we get terrible Depressions and Recessions, and when taxes and regulations are increased, as they were under FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, and Clinton, we get richer, we grow, we have jobs with raises, and we even lower the National Debt and get a budget surplus? What you are saying goes against what history tells us? If it didn’t work 3 times, why will it finally work the fourth?

(Where’s Eileen when you really need her….)

Republicans: “blah, blah, blah..”

kavipsian Economist: “show me where it’s true…”

Republican: We can’t show you because there is no evidence that it works yet. That is exactly why we need to keep trying. All our funding comes from the top 1% of Americans and if we say what you’re implying, they will cut of all our funding.

kavipsian Economist: ” So, you are agreeing it isn’t true?”

Republican: I can’t answer that question because of financial obligations but you can…. Is there any historical proof that cutting taxes grows the economy?

kavipsian Economist: “No.”

Republican: “There you go, you just answered the question by yourself; now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go drum up some more contributions. This recession has cut into our money supply…”

So why when you give the wealthy more money, does the economy falter? Because you don’t control how they spend it. Which is preferable: investing in America and getting a 3% return, or investing overseas and getting a 17% return? That’s why giving the wealthy more money hurts America.

Now why does heavier taxing grow the economy? Because you are controlling how they spend it. Which is preferable. Work hard, and pay the Federal Government 40% of all you make, or… invest most of that back in your business, lower reported profit, and pay 40% on the little bit of income you report, if you report any at all… This is what happened from the end of WWII up to the Kennedy Tax cut. And happened again, immediately after Bill Clinton took office….

It works like this. To keep my money out of the IRS, I expand my business. I pay people with money I would normally pay the IRS so it really doesn’t cost me to do so… Those people spend, requiring more businesses to hire just to accommodate that extra spending,
which continues as a domino effect causing jobs to open up, which of course sends money to the Federal government. What Clinton was so masterful at, and didn’t happen on any previous Democrats watch, was as more people got back to work, he cut back on Federal Spending . After all, you really don’t need it to stimulate the economy when the private sector is roaring.

As more people work, more people spend, requiring more workers, resulting in more people spending, requiring even more workers, resulting in even more spending… requiring… And eventually, the debt gets paid down. Those receiving the cash, now need to invest it somewhere…. which causes more jobs, which causes more spending.

In sound byte from. Republicans suck money out of the economy; Democrats pump it back in….

Who benefits from Rick Carrolls spouted philosophy? Only those people who have so much money, they’d rather invest in the 3rd world than put it back into America.

It’s happened 3 times already. They’re fools if they think we’ll let them do it to us again…. The funny thing is, we all remember the great Clinton years. Let’s do what he did, expire the tax cuts, raise the rate to 40% for the top 1%, and watch them scurry to invest that money back into our economy.

And Delaware? Since the Democrats wiped out the local Republican party, Delaware spends less per it’s GSP (Gross State Product) than any other US State…. You can’t cut spending any more… We are the best, and that is solely because we have a Democrat for a Governor, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House.

If one looks at this chart, they find that the heavily Democratic states spend much less per GSP than the heavily Republican ones …

If the media would do their job, and ask Republicans why,… what they are proposing ruins this nation each time it is implemented, … there would be no Republican Party. It’s all based on a lie…

No?

Prove it… Your history bets you can’t.

Republicans Pledge of America

America is more than a country.

America is an idea – an idea that free people can govern themselves, that government’s powers are derived from the consent of the governed, that each of us is endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America is the belief that any man or woman can – given economic, political, and religious liberty – advance themselves, their families, and the common good.

America is an inspiration to those who yearn to be free and have the ability and the dignity to determine their own destiny.

Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course.

These first principles were proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, enshrined in the Constitution, and have endured through hard sacrifice and commitment by generations of Americans.

In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.

An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down longstanding laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people.

An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.

Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment are fraying the bonds among our people and blurring our sense of national purpose.

Like free peoples of the past, our citizens refuse to accommodate a government that believes it can replace the will of the people with its own. The American people are speaking out, demanding that we realign our country’s compass with its founding principles and apply those principles to solve our common problems for the common good.

The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated.

With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.

We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored – particularly the Tenth Amendment, which grants that all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

We pledge to advance policies that promote greater liberty, wider opportunity, a robust defense, and national economic prosperity.

We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.

We pledge to make government more transparent in its actions, careful in its stewardship, and honest in its dealings.

We pledge to uphold the purpose and promise of a better America, knowing that to whom much is given, much is expected and that the blessings of our liberty buoy the hopes of mankind.

We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent, and we invite fellow citizens and patriots to join us in forming a new governing agenda for America.

Win, Win, Win…

Courtsey of John Tobin, here are the statistics of Delaware.

County——- Democrats—- Republicans– Others——– Total
Kent ————46,208—– 32,948—— -26,450—— 105,606
New Castle— -194,504—– 101,496—— 92,301——- 388,301
Sussex ———52,026——- 48,352—— 27,461——- 127,839
Statewide—– 292,738—— 182,796—– 146,212——- 621,746

The last off election was in 2006… As a guide, here are those results…..

right click on image, then hit ‘open image’ for full view

The turnout was 46 %… 48% among Democrats; 50% among Republicans, and 38% among Independents. Here are the statistics of voter turnout the last election year.

right click on image, then hit ‘open image’ for full view

The Independents hold the swing votes. Based on current registration, the Democrats have a registered majority of 110,000 votes over Republicans. That means that if every voter voted, the Republicans would need the help of 110,000 independents just to match the Democrats registration, and then need a majority of the few 36000 left over… For O’Donnell to win with full turnout, she needs 118,000 of the 136,000 independents to cast their votes for her… An almost impossible task…

But, not all registered voters vote in off year elections.. Based on the trends of the last off season election, Christine O’Donnell needs only to pull 27,000 votes away from Independents to catch up, then split the remaining votes evenly: roughly 11,000 votes more… That means she would carry 38,000 of the 51,000 Independents who voted in the last election… Since her message is more in line with independents ways of thinking, her winning the campaign is entirely possible…

She can win if two things happen. One, the Independents vote for her by a 70/30 split, and two, if Republicans can get excited by this race that they vote in levels of a national election, while Democrats sit on their hands… 127,000 Republicans voted for Sarah Palin last election. If numbers like that turn out again, than Christine O’Donnell can win it with only a split of 16,000 out of 50,000 Independent voters, or 32%… Quite doable and probably more likely to happen.

Of course the media is calling this for Coons. One expects it. They aren’t that smart. But you heard it here first, that it is doable for Christine to be sworn in the day after the election….

Ironically it will be the Castle Republicans who will determine her fate. If I were handling her campaign, I would parade Sarah Palin through every small community Delaware has. Like any visit from a national icon, it would inspire interest among those Christine needs. Biden, wouldn’t have the star power to counter it… Only Obama traveling the state, has enough star power to counteract Palin’s influence. If he wants the Dems to win in Delaware, he better do it.

Cap And Trade: A Failure to Communicate

Video courtesy of The Story of Stuff

This explains America’s failure to appreciate cap and trade. If you don’t know what cap and trade entails, you will after seeing this…

A Remarkable Race: Coons/ODonnell

As someone who values ideas battling versus personalities, this race has has it all!…

Let’s look at some of the monetary differences… today’s financial crises has opened all doors of opportunity. On the table before us, we have these two ways of getting ourselves out of the recession….

1) We can spend now and collect the fees later, or … 2) we can freeze spending and pay the price later… When it comes down to spending, exactly how efficiently do we spend? And when we do spend, do we do it to benefit the group known as “We, the People”? or do we benefit “you, the mighty corporations” ?

Whenever the anti-tax force speaks out, they speak for corporations… Their position often falls on flat ears because 47% of Americans do not pay federal income taxes. 47% Americans.. That’s almost enough to win an election right there…. Their federal tax liability has been counteracted by tax credits. Therefore it is up to the other 53% of the electorate to fund this nation.

When the anti-spending forces speak, they too speak for corporations… The only aspects of our budget that can be cut these days, are entitlements. Medicare, Social Security. These taxes are costs to corporations. Their removal will benefit the bottom lines… Unfortunately, the reality is, …the Federal budget is stretched too thin already. The things we need, like better benefits for our returning soldiers, can’t be accomplished for lack of money…

So who speaks for the people? Those that deal with people on a daily basis… What works for these people? Well, loans… Let’s look at Christine O’Donnell’s own finances for guidance. When broke, she borrowed (equate campaign treasury as a bank) with the full intention to pay back later. She spent other’s people money to stay afloat. It’s what most Americans did during the Bush years. Spent money off equity loans. That’s how one survives… When you don’t have money, and need something, you borrow from someone who has it and repay them later… Duh.

This nation cannot be allowed to collapse. Republicans if they were in positions of leadership, would be forced to act the same as Obama. … Wait a minute! … One already did. George Bush in his most important act of his lifetime, saved the world from certain ruin by going from capitalist to socialist in 20 minutes… The fact we can work today, and spend what little we get, is totally resulting on the courage of that one Republican who abandoned his failed policy, and switched horses in mid-stream. No doubt he will one day be pilloried by Republicans for doing this… but he will be hailed by historians. He did more for this nation in twenty minutes, than any other president alive today. He recognized he had no choice. He did what O’Donnell did. He spent because he had too.

One can quibble with the differences between O’Donnell’s personal spending habits and the Federal Governments. But they can’t touch the fact that sometimes excessive spending must be done to stay afloat. And that is where this nation is right now, trying to stay afloat…

It’s kinda nice Republicans are feeling desperation right now. American’s have been feeling it since George Bush II was elected... Whereas during the Clinton years, we all were increasing our incomes, our 401 K’s were growing instead of being robbed, and we could count on more income during the next year as opposed to less, today we have opposite outtakes. We got burned by cutting out considerable revenues to our government..

It is interesting. When the Fed spends…. life is great and we all make money. When the Fed cuts back… life is terrible and we all lose money…

image courtesy of Business Insider

Chris Coons has faced the problem of lost revenues. He has still made New Castle County a livable place.. The taxes are small, and the expense for which they are used, are all necessary. Yes, we can cut expenses by doing away with police entirely. But who do you call when someone breaks into your home? That’s the dilemma facing all those who clamor over cutting spending. There is nothing left to cut…..

This election is about the government’s role in the economy.. Do you cut back on all necessary services just so you can say you cut taxes on 53% of the population? Or… do you keep necessary services afloat, by taking back some of the money you generously, and unnecessarily gave out, between 2000 and 2009?

On philosophy alone, Chris Coon’s track record shows a fine sense of balancing these two options. His opponent, though speaking otherwise, has shown she runs her own personal finances…exactly the same way as did Chris as county executive. The difference is that Coon’s did it in a fashion as to maintain its AAA bond rating.

This battle shall not be between a County Executive and a professional Senate contender. This battle shall not be a Democrat and Republican. No, this battle is between the no tax-tax rebate contenders, versus the keep-services-alive by paying-as-you-go philosophy…

Image Courtesy of Currency Thoughts

Considering that historically, the economies of Democrat presidents do better than Republican presidents, we should investigate more closely this notion that cutting taxes boosts the economy. All evidence out there now seems to show the opposite; that raising taxes and boosting spending, are the only things able to pump up the economy.

Image courtsey of McClatchy

LOL… C’mon Karl, Get Real…

Karl Rove bashed O’Donnell on Hannity.

Here is the Youtube Link….

ROVE: It does conservatives little good to support candidates who at the end of the day while they may be conservative in their public statements do not event the characteristics of rectitude, truthfulness and sincerity and character that the voters are looking for. [...]

But we also can’t make progress if we have candidates who got serious character problems, who cause ordinary voters who are not philosophically aligned with us to not vote for our candidates out of concern of what they said and what they do. … But look, she attacked him by saying he had a homosexual relationship with a young aide with not a bit of evidence to prove it.

HANNITY: She said in that interview she was not making that accusation.

ROVE: That was the second interview. She had already previously spread the rumor. Come on! Look, she’s got a chance now. Let’s you and I have a private side bet on this one. I think at the end of the day she has to answer these questions in a way that people of Delaware find convincing or we are going to find ourselves with somebody who says conservative things, but doesn’t have the character that the people of Delaware want to have.

Lol..

Here are exerpts of what the Atlantic Monthly said about Karl Rove in November 2004….. What is that, six years ago?

1) “It was our standard practice to use the University of Alabama Law School to disseminate whisper-campaign information,” the staffer went on. “That was a major device we used for the transmission of this stuff. The students at the law school are from all over the state, and that’s one of the ways that Karl got the information out—he knew the law students would take it back to their home towns and it would get out.” This would create the impression that the lie was in fact common knowledge across the state. “What Rove does,” says Joe Perkins, “is try to make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship. Mark is not your typical Alabama macho, beer-drinkin’, tobacco-chewin’, pickup-drivin’ kind of guy. He is a small, well-groomed, well-educated family man, and what they tried to do was make him look like a homosexual pedophile. That was really, really hard to take.”

2) “The details vary slightly according to which insider tells the story, but the main point is always the same: after Weaver went into business for himself and lured away one of Rove’s top employees, Rove spread a rumor that Weaver had made a pass at a young man at a state Republican function. Weaver won’t reply to the smear, but those close to him told me of their outrage at the nearly two-decades-old lie. Weaver was first made unwelcome in some Texas Republican circles,”

3) Some of Rove’s darker tactics cut even closer to the bone. One constant throughout his career is the prevalence of whisper campaigns against opponents. The 2000 primary campaign, for example, featured a widely disseminated rumor that John McCain, tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, had betrayed his country under interrogation and been rendered mentally unfit for office. More often a Rove campaign questions an opponent’s sexual orientation. Bush’s 1994 race against Ann Richards featured a rumor that she was a lesbian, along with a rare instance of such a tactic’s making it into the public record—when a regional chairman of the Bush campaign allowed himself, perhaps inadvertently, to be quoted criticizing Richards for “appointing avowed homosexual activists” to state jobs.

4) “According to someone who worked for him, Rove, dissatisfied with the campaign’s progress, had flyers printed up—absent any trace of who was behind them—viciously attacking See and his family. “We were trying to craft a message to reach some of the blue-collar, lower-middle-class people,” the staffer says. “You’d roll it up, put a rubber band around it, and paperboy it at houses late at night. I was told, ‘Do not hand it to anybody, do not tell anybody who you’re with, and if you can, borrow a car that doesn’t have your tags.’ So I borrowed a buddy’s car [and drove] down the middle of the street … I had Hefty bags stuffed full of these rolled-up pamphlets, and I’d cruise the designated neighborhoods, throwing these things out with both hands and literally driving with my knees.” The ploy left Rove’s opponent at a loss. “

5) “Several consultants pointed to the issue of gay marriage, which one described as a perfect Texas wedge issue because it would attract culturally conservative Democrats in the eastern part of the state—”the rednecks,” as he put it—who are normally the key to winning statewide office”

Contrary to most criticism of this candidate, I would almost venture that Rove is handling O’Donnell’s campaign, and that this interview bashing her, was actually done to improve her changes and fund-raisabililty among the “extreme” nationwide… it’s what I’d do.

Why Coons Should Worry

Sooner or later she would reinvent herself… The question was how soon?

If her website wasn’t updated for a week, I would expect a campaign like KHN of last election cycle.

But this time, the stakes are bigger, and as of 9:32 last night, just one and a half hour after polls in Delaware had closed, her website was stripped…

For those of you not in politics… that’s good… real good..

until at least 9:32 last night, there were several other pages, including one titled “About Christie,” another explaining, “Why Christie?” another supposedly debunking smears against O’Donnell, a list of endorsements, and several press releases. Here is a screen grab, recovered from Google cache, of the many options a visitor to O’Donnell’s website would have had, had they visited her site before it was stripped:
Courtesy of Thinkprogress.org

Well, anyway. I thought you should know….

Coons needs to worry. That’s a real good reaction time. I’m impressed.