Jack & Jill Politics

Good Morning!

Well, enjoy this day, whatever it means to you and your family. At the core, it’s about spending time with family.

So, in between the BBQ, Spades, Trash Talking and Bid Whist, stop by here at JJP and give us some links, have a little debate, though I believe you’ll probably be having those with family and friends today, and any trivia you might find out.

And always, have a peaceful day.

So welcome onto the not-so-straight express where John McCain straight up lies about the fact that he’s said repeatedly that he don’t know jack about economics. NOW, of course that the Republicans are partly responsible for flushing our economy down a toilet swirl with poor policy and way out of control deficit spending — now that it’s a primary concern of voters, well now he’d like to take that back. Howz about we not let him off the hook this time.

Peep the video here to catch Old Man McCain in his latest lie.

Here are some excerpts. . .

via HuffingtonPost and My.BarackObama.com:

This was not an easy call for me. I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn’t have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush’s abuse of executive power. It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush administration’s program of warrantless wiretapping. This potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses. That’s why I support striking Title II from the bill, and will work with Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman and others in an effort to remove this provision in the Senate.

But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any president or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court. In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited. As I’ve said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility.

The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I’m persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe — particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I’ve chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention — once I’m sworn in as president — to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.

I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I’m not exempt from that.

Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That’s ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have. After all, the choice in this election could not be clearer. Whether it is the economy, foreign policy, or the Supreme Court, my opponent has embraced the failed course of the last eight years, while I want to take this country in a new direction. Make no mistake: if John McCain is elected, the fundamental direction of this country that we love will not change. But if we come together, we have an historic opportunity to chart a new course, a better course.

I would like to thank everyone who offered sympathy. I really appreciated the positive and loving thoughts sent my way.

As usual, I enjoyed the spirited debate here.

So, continue to drop those links, have those debates, and give us some trivia too.

And always, have a peaceful day.

At least that’s the type of rhetoric you get when you pit one right-winger against another.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you . . .

Pat Buchanan vs. Lawrence Kudlow

I’m a political junkie. . . I can’t help but love conversations like this. I feel dirty saying this, but I kinda agree with Buchanan on this one. Ok, I need to go wash my mouth out with soap now. LOL!

cross-posted from my blog

If Obama wins a landslide victory, he’ll likely have the black community to thank for it.

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And therefore couldn’t possibly have gotten the discount on his mortgage on his own merit, is the subtext of this article in the Washington Post.

To wit, Poblano from FiveThirtyEight.com takes them to task:

Irresponsible Journalism Alert

It took more than four months, but something finally beat out the Vicki Iseman story for its sheer chutzpah and utter irresponsibility.

The culprit is this piece from the Washington Post, which alleges that Barack Obama received a “discount” on his 30-year home mortgage when he purchased his house in Hyde Park in 2005. Obama’s mortgage rate was 5.625 percent; the Washington Post cites databases stating that the average rate on comparable properties was 5.93 percent.

So Obama’s rate was 30 basis points better than the average. However, the amount of the loan and the nature of the property are not the only factors that determine a mortgage rate. Another major consideration is the creditworthiness of the borrower. According to current rate quotes from myFICO.com, a borrower with very good credit can expect a mortgage rate about 30 basis points better than someone with pretty good credit, and a borrower with excellent credit can expect about a 50 basis point discount.

Unless the Washington Post has access to Obama’s FICO score — and unless it has rented an apartment to him, it probably doesn’t — it is missing a pretty important piece of information on what Obama’s mortgage rate ought to have been. What was Obama’s FICO score? I don’t know, but considering that…

* Obama had just gotten a $2.27 million book deal from Random House — about $1 million more than the value of the mortgage.
* The Obamas each had exceptionally secure jobs that paid them a combined annual salary of about $500,000 per year.
* The Obamas had just sold their condo, on which they had realized a $137,500 profit.
* The Obamas were prominent public figures whose political futures depended in part on maintaining a reputation for responsibility and trustworthiness.
* The Obamas are known to be relatively thrifty and have no credit card debt but substantial savings.

…I would think that the Obamas were exceptionally creditworthy. So indeed, Obama received a “discount” — the same discount that any borrower in his position would have received.

And, yes, I apologize for being a little off-subject (and running three media-bashing pieces in a row), but one of the things that ties together my work over here and my work at Baseball Prospectus is that I want the media to be smarter and more accountable when they cite statistical information, be it mortgage rates or polling numbers or batting averages. This article was neither smart nor accountable. It’s the equivalent of noting that Alex Rodriguez has a batting average 40 points better than the league average, and using that to infer that the umpires were biased in his favor.

Posted by Nate at 8:17 AM

I didn’t like the initial story because I thought it was an attack on character with no ‘there there’. The McCains don’t pay taxes on one of their EIGHT properties, but this Obama piece is the kind of ’story’ that the MSM would run with without any verification or intelligent analysis that Poblano put into it.

Congratulations Shelby. You inspired a whole new award. 

“White Americans have made more moral progress in the last forty years than any people in the history of the human conditions.”

                                                                          –Shelby Steele

I’d just like to add that white folks’ sweat tastes like Sierra Mist and that inhaling their farts can cure cancer, but only if you keep your mouth open.

cross-posted to baratunde.com

I am an ambassador for OneWebDay, an annual effort to:

focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy)

focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills)

create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet

I got online in 1994 because a parent at my high school worked for UUNet and donated a connection to our school. We had one computer in the corner of the lab with access, not to the “web” (cause that didn’t quite exist), but to the “Internet.”

There were no graphics, just amber text on a black background. The browser, as it was, was a piece of software called Lynx. You launched it by typing the word “lynx” at the prompt and pressing “carriage return.” Remember carriage return yall? That’s from typewriter days!

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BoysIIMen, A Song for Mama

Myself

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as the days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for the things I have done.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of man I really am;
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.

By Edgar A. Guest

This was Mama’s favorite poem. My mother has passed away, and I’ll be stepping back from blogging for a bit. I’ll do what I can. I had prepared myself mentally for her death to be as a result of the diabetes that was slowly breaking down her body. I learned all I could about ‘complications’ from diabetes and what to be on the lookout for, as I helped Mama manage her diabetes. So when the doctor told us in January that she had inoperable lung cancer, we were both stunned. After all, Mama hadn’t touched a cigarette or been around cigarettes in over 25 years. It was swift, brutal and unforgiving.

I will not lie; my heart is broken.