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A somber, Barack Obama returning to Chicago today.
Do you blame him? After being supposedly, satirized by The New Yorker Magazine?
Today it appears The New Yorker Magazine is playing defense for its cover. They should, it is the outrage right now and feeds into all the stereotyping and internet smearing of Barack and Michelle Obama.
I said, long ago that this campaign would be about defining Barack and Michelle Obama, even if it means going racist, sextist and totally negative.
Thank You, New Yorker Magazine for opening the door here.
Yes, we understand you said it is satire, but you are a bunch of folks, sitting in an office in Manhattan who think people will get this. Sure, you are targeting your sophisticated clientele, but in the meantime everyone one else is either applauding the, "I told you so" or scratching their heads for a truly, "WTF" moment.
Now for those playing catch up:
NPR: New Yorker Editor Defends Obama Cover
NPR: Obama And The Chicago Establishment
msnbc
nbc's nightly news
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Which Bank Will Fall Next?
All EYEZ on Washington Mutual.
Let's get this out of the way right now: Your money is safe if it's in an institution insured by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. covers up to $100,000 per institution, and even may provide additional coverage for IRAs in those banks. So, don't head for the mattress store.
That said, it's an ominous sign that I can buy a share of Washington Mutual for about the same price as my morning tall, nonfat, no-whip, stirred mocha at Starbucks. The sour taste from a week of more market turmoil, ending with the federal seizure of big mortgage lender IndyMac Bank, sent Washington Mutual shares down 34.7 percent today to $3.23. Those same shares fetched nearly $43 a year ago.
I don't care what you SAY, there are more banks that will FALL.
After IndyMac being taken over by the feds, do you think that this was the only bank entrenched and deeply involved with the mortgage mess that has taken many down? Including many millions of American home owners?
Think again.
Washington Mutual Inc. posted the steepest retreat ever and National City Corp. tumbled to a 24-year low after last week's collapse of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. spurred speculation that regional banks are short of capital. The companies said they've seen no unusual depositor activity. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac erased an earlier rally fueled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to help rescue the largest U.S. mortgage lenders.
If you have over 100K in the bank, you better spread it around. I expect more of what happened to IndyMac coming to another bank, soon.
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obama's speech at nclr conference in san diego
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My Plan for Iraq
The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.
The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown.
In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.
But the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200 billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.
The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready to assume responsibility for security in 2009.
Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.
But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.
As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal.
In carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected. We would move them from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We would pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region on behalf of Iraq’s stability, and commit $2 billion to a new international effort to support Iraq’s refugees.
Ending the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been. As Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq.
As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.
In this campaign, there are honest differences over Iraq, and we should discuss them with the thoroughness they deserve. Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea, and would redeploy our troops out of Iraq and focus on the broader security challenges that we face. But for far too long, those responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy have ignored useful debate in favor of making false charges about flip-flops and surrender.
It’s not going to work this time. It’s time to end this war.
Barack Obama, a United States senator from Illinois, is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
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Cindy McCain is about to make a financial killing on her stock/investment in Anheuser-Busch Company a.k.a. Budweiser. If you need to catch up on Cindy and her money dealings, click here.
Meantime, here is the crux of it:
Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, is set to get a huge payout from the sale of Anheuser-Busch Cos., brewer of Budweiser and hundreds of other brands, to Belgian beverage giant InBev NV.
McCain, the heiress to the third-largest Anheuser distributor, owns at a minimum $1 million in the American company, according to John McCain’s Senate financial disclosure forms, which don’t offer any more information for large assets held by his spouse. Under the deal, she and other stockholders will get a cash payout for the stock, which is owned through her company, Hensley and Co.
Anheuser’s stock price opened at $67.55 today, almost a 50% gain over the near $47 price in February when the possibility of a deal was made public. Cashing out could leave the McCains with hefty capital gains, which would be taxed at a rate of 15% under the Bush tax cuts that John McCain opposed and now supports. (Barack Obama has proposed raising the capital gains tax.) continue
A guess of what she could make is about:
If Cindy were to sell off the 2006-era number of shares, as estimated above, at today's $70 price, she would make $17,545,780.
No wonder there's no problem having 8 homes. Damn, I need a cup of that elitism!!
Oh, Cindy also said the only way to get around the State of Arizona is by small plane. Yes, she said that. See the video, here.
And folks have the nerve stating the Obamas are elitists???
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Obama is in Cincinnati tonight to give a speech to the NAACP.
Obama to give major Iraq Speech in Washington, D.C., tomorrow.
Is O'Bama Ireland bound?
Obama's feature article in Newsweek on Finding His Faith.
If you missed the weekly, 'This Week With Barack Obama', read it here.
And new state polling show Obama improving, not dropping here.
finally, a pick me up....
This Week With Barack Obama
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