Wow! It was so exciting, I was up all night! February 6, 2008

Super Tuesday was a blast.  I sat up until the wee hours watching the returns, guessing and calling people and all kinds of good stuff.  Heck, I even had snacks.  And my late night companion . . . my mother-in-law.  Go figure.  Well, she fell asleep a few times, and she thinks G.W. might actually have been a good president, but she was willing to listen to me pontificate half the night, so I can’t hate.  (Well, maybe on the GW thing.)  We commented on how frighteningly pulled back John McCain’s wife looked and we amen and mmm hmmmed our way through Barak Obama’s speech.  (Michelle wore a bad suit by the way.)  We missed Hillary Clinton’s speech, we were watching Nip/Tuck in between (hey, gotta have some levity).  I agreed and disagreed with the talking heads and watched practically holding my breath as the Missouri retunrs were posted.  I also laughed when CNN mentioned over and over how “notoriously slow” the cities and urban areas of Missouri count.  You just knew they were killing themselves to not say St. Louis even counts votes on CP time.  LOL! 

By the way, what the heck is up with “super delegates”?  Why are some people super?  Do they have special powers?  I would be pyssed if I was a delagate and told I could nto be “SUPER”.  LOL!   

It was a great night.  It started getting this old poli sci major’s political juices flowing again.  Its been a long time since politics were sexy to me.  For quite some time, I have been just pyssed off.  I always vote so I can complain, but wholly uninspired.  I am feeling tingly now.  I have watched, I have waited, listened and read,  not said much because I just wanted to feel folks out (as in candidates, I don’t care what other dunderheads think).  Now, I am getting in the groove.  I don’t know if I am ready to go out in the rain and knock on doors on election day the way I did in 92, I may be a bit too old for that one.  But I am getting pumped up! 

Bush’s Economic Stimulus Plan . . . January 24, 2008

Am I the only one who this makes a little nervous.  Especially lump sum payouts that increase the deficit like the one described below.

“Under the deal, nearly everyone who earned a paycheck in 2007 would receive at least $300 from the Internal Revenue Service — $103 billion in total. Most people would receive rebates of $600 each, or $1,200 per couple. Families with children would receive an additional payment of $300 per child. Workers who earned at least $3,000 last year — but not enough to pay income taxes — would be eligible for $300. ”

Overall, 117 million families would receive rebate checks, including 35 million with earnings too low to have qualified under an earlier Bush proposal that limited checks to income tax payers. Rebates would be limited, however, to single taxpayers with adjusted gross income up to $75,000 — up to $150,000 for couples. Above that, the benefit would phase out until hitting zero for individuals with adjusted income of about $87,000, $174,000 for couples.

The money would be borrowed and would increase the federal deficit. ” – Washingtonpost.com

Ok, so people get a little check and spend it on who knows what.  So a bunch of stores have a sale and people go and blow them there, a couple of folks delay having their gas cut off by an extra couple of weeks.  How much stimulation will the economy REALLY get at the expense of the overall budget especially while we are in the midst of a long, costly war. 

I am still mulling over this one.  What do you think?

I was waiting for him to toss up a black gloved fist . . . January 22, 2008

Talk about an entertaining debate.  I just loved it when John Edwards treated both Obama and Clinton like sparring children and reminding the moderator that there was actually a question on the floor about the economy and that the race was not about the “personalities” but the country.  Loved it “dad”.  LOL!  He followed that up with a very interesting stance regarding the lending crisis and African Americans. 

Courtesy of a quick pen and TIVO:

Moderator:  Senator Edwards, lets dig a little deeper on the economic mess we’re in currently.  Uh, in 2006, a study from the Center for responsible Lending (I swear there is a center for everything) found that African Americans are something like 30% more likely to be sold a sub-prime home loan than white borrowers with similar credit histories and income.  The South carolina NAACP said last month that the “Amercian Dream” for too many Americans, too many African Americans is a national nightmare.  The National NAACP has even filed a class action lawsuit against 12 nationwide lenders.  So the bottom line question is, do you believe that lenders have specifically targeted African americans.  is this sub-prime mess really also an issue of race.

Sen. Edwards:  Yes is the answer.  (Awww snap!  Eyes popping out of my head, the man didn’t even flinch or hesitate!)  I think they have targeted . . . if they haven’t been racially motivated I don’t know, I can’t there is no way for me to know what’s inside their head.  (OK, stumbled a little there, but he brings it home folks.  LOL!)  But what they have done is they have targeted the lowest income, most vulnerable families.  And anybody who’s paying any attention to what’s going on in America today understands that if you are African American in this country today, you are likely to have a net worth of about 10% of what white families have.  This is NOT an accident.  (Ok, now before ya’ll start trippin, he said Likely, not everyone.)  We can put our heads against the wall and pretend that the past  never happened, pretend that we didn’t live through decades of slavery (ok, so it was more like scores, alright centures, but I still like where he is going), followed by decades of segragation, followed by decades of discrimination, which is still going on today.  That history and that legacy has consequences.  and the consequence has been that african American familes are more vulnerable, they’re more vulnerable to payday lender, more vulnerable to predatory lenders, which is why we desperately need a national law, which I propose, which would crack down on these pay day lenders .  .  .  

He went on from there regarding his proposal. 

I was literally sitting on the floor trippin.  Go ahead John Edwards, I ain’t mad at you.  You are in your home state, you lost it the last time, and this time you are giving it everything you got.  Watch out for Bubba an ‘nem though, cause they made sure my cousin’s high school still had a segregated prom as recently as 1989.

So, what do you think about last night?

Obama and Huckabee win Iowa, Clinton and McCain win New Hampshire . . . January 9, 2008

Its getting interesting.  I love a good juicy race.  I think it really forces candidates to really articulate what the heck they are going to do.  No more of this we need a change, I am your candidate, I am a woman, I am a man, I am black, I am a veteran, I just happened to be standing in NY when the towers were hit, etc.  People may be following you around like you are wearing a pair of assless chaps singing “Purple Rain”, but when they get into the voting booth and the curtain is pulled its a different story.  Now, the stuff has got to come out.  So Obama, Clinton, McCain, Huckabee (ok, I really don’t need to know), Edwards, Romney, Gulliani (again don’t care), Thompson (alright, now I am just being ridiculous), Manny, Moe, Jack, Bell, Biv, and Devoe.  What are you really gonna do for me, and how the heck are you going to do it?  Its a horse race, you need my vote.  Break it down and tell me exactly why you should get it! 

Its a political tug of war and pulling the flag to your side means you get to be president! 

Your thoughts . . .