John McCain’s words from his book, Worth the Fighting For

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."

I'm sure very few people find themselves in the position of running for president completely devoid of personal ambition, and ambition in itself is not an inherently bad thing.

In fairness to Senator McCain, he does go on to say that he believes he has the experience, both political and military, to do the job.

That said, I want a president driven by the desire to create a better world, not one who mostly wants to satisfy his ego.

I took the picture below last night, I first read the quote online on another blog, but wasn't convinced it was accurate until I saw it for myself.

$700,000,000.000.00, or getting richer, quicker?

I like Woody Guthrie. I'd probably like riding around in box cars, and even in times of prosperity, cooking beans over a campfire appeals to me, but I'm not saying 'bring on the depression'.

That said, I can't get behind this bailout yet, and I'm not sure any amount of details will change that, because I'm not sure new rules could be implemented in a way that fundamentally changes how business works.

As I understand it, we're in the situation not because of simple greed, but because of complex greed. The more I read, the more it seems that Wall Street operates on the same principles as the 'no money down real estate' schemers that run infomercials in the middle of the night.

The companies we're trying to save seem to have an atrocious history of trying to make money out of money where nothing else exists. They're not investing in people or business, they're not investing in anything that helps society.

We've built a financial industry where we can sell stocks that we don't own, that we can control massively more commodities than we can afford to purchase, that we can hedge our investment gambles with insurance policies on them.

I for one am beginning to believe we need to invest that money in something real, real jobs, real education, real energy solutions, real health care, real infrastructure, and not just grease the squeaky wheels of a financial system that seems to be most concerned with making the rich richer.

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The Fundamentals of our Economy are Strong

If John McCain wants to spin this signature line from his speeches into some sort of comment on how innovative and productive the American worker is, rather than considering the fundamentals of the economy to be those measurable areas of it such as job creation, unemployment rates, inflation, let him.

But to John McCain, I ask this:

What does the American worker look like? Are you talking about the CEO getting millions of dollars in bonuses while their company posts record loses? Or are you talking about the everyday worker who makes a tiny fraction of a percent of what the CEO does?

John McCain, how many times have you voted against an increase in the minimum wage? (the answer is 19)

Are these minimum wage workers a fundamental of our economy? These workers, who with their families make up the 47,000,000+ Americans without health insurance?

Pardon me if I don't accept your campaigns' rhetoric that since no one can be turned away from an Emergency Room, we have Universal Health Care in this country.

Is it the fundamentally strong workers who are losing their homes in historic numbers (nearly 10,000 a week). And what about those who are in homes that have lost a quarter of their value or more under the same economic policies you subscribe to?

Perhaps the fundamentally strong workers are that top 1% who receives 36% of the Bush tax cuts that you want to make permanent.

As Dennis Kucinich said in Denver, Wake-Up America!

We're closing in on the deadline to register to vote (it's October 6th in Ohio).

Talk to a friend that's not registered, and make sure they do. Talk to a friend that doesn't care the least bit about politics and give the reasons why you think it's worth taking a few minutes to register and vote. This election is too important, and recent history shows us the difference of a few hundred votes is the difference between 8 years of Bush or a better America than what we have now.

Sarah Palin's Red Meat Express

"Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except you have actual responsibilities."

Yeah, I guess it is, except most community organizers don't generate $22,000,000,00 in debt for their communities, and they don't hire lobbyists to generate $27,000,000.00 in earmarks.

Those things aren't the biggest knocks against her in my book (speaking of books, Time reported that she had a chat with her home town librarian about how to go about banning books, and when she didn't like the answers she got, she threatened to fire the woman). But I think it's a little funny that she's being presented to us by John McCain (who vows as president to veto any bill with earmarks in it) as a true reformer and little else.

With all the issues facing our country these days, just where does the need for reform in government sit with you? Before the economy? Iraq? health care? global warming? education?