We were invited to a small group gathering to watch the debates courtesy of 5th Ward Council rep Chas Kelly. There was a good turnout for a home gathering, with lots of passion amidst the attenders. A Press Enterprise reporter was there also to document the event.
During the hour and a half debate, there was lot of chatter among the watchers, some more vocal than others. Chas mentioned at the start that we all needed to be respectful of each others' opinions, so, you know how that goes, there was a bit of controversial comments made.
Afterwards, Chas rounded up everyone for an open discussion on the debate session. Note that there was a republican-leaning on the attenders, although the democrats were there, which makes for an even more debating arena.
Other officials present were 3rd Ward rep Tobin Brinker and family and local community participant Tim Prince, who is running for Congress.
So we had a good open discussion, from senior citizens to the youth of our community. The main concensus was we did not hear much to change our minds--if we came in for favoring one candidate, we still felt the same.
Chas wanted to know if the group was up for the same type of event for the remaining debate sessions, as well as the VP debates, next time we will be meeting at Jersey's Pizza Parlor, a bigger, and cooler place, to be, as well as putting our monies into the local community.
What most concerned me during the presidential debate and elsewhere in the instant campaign, including statements by vice-presidential candidates, is saber rattling toward opening at least another front with Iran in what is already a World War. San Bernardino is already a depot for China, which effectively finances American deficit spending, including the cost of the "War on Terror" through an obscene unfavorable balance of trade toward an even greater day of reckoning than is being blamed on the so called subprime mortgage crisis.
ReplyDeleteI received the following e-mail from Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (R-Texas), and submit that the fact he was not on stage in the presidential debate speaks disturbing volumes on the American people:
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Dear Friends,
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike…
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters…"
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences - predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics - are being let off the hook. The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
• The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
• Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government." This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
• Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country…
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people. The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind - another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it. Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what kind of country we shall be.
Ron Paul
That both candidate’s comments, like those of their running mates elsewhere, tip the hat to Israel by rattling the American saber threatening to open AT LEAST another front in the current already-a-World War concern me most. Right after the debate I visited the following links to help me form my own opinion and commend them to you:
Larry King Live interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just before he spoke to the UN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjuCXuESyyA&feature=related
The above link is to #1 of 6 and links to the rest of the interview should appear on the same YouTube page.
Regarding the often reasserted claim that Dr. Ahmaninejad stated that he advocated “wiping Israel off the map” see:
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=69866§ionid=3510302