National EScow Championships Results

Here is the link

We are M9, Skipper Tom Burton.

TAXES

If you are not wealthy then you can vote for either of these candidates and know that your taxes won't go up. Only one candidate cuts your taxes while finding a way to pay for it.

It will hit the fan now.

It will not be financially difficult for Obama to cut off PAC and Lobbyist financing. However, it will be very hard on his campaign in other ways. Washington Politicians, Lobbyists, and PACs have a vested interest in keeping the current system of "Pay to Play" in place. Their very livelihoods depend on it.

I believe Washington will stop at nothing to bring Obama down for having the audacity to propose that "regular people" in America will take precedence over entrenched Washington insiders.

This is why we need change in Washington.

Both partys do it but one got caught.

An Iraqi point of view.

Obama in Portland - 75,000 people

Now these are lobbyists I like.

Result From Our First Regatta of 2008

The four of us race the boat M-9. We were beaten by a boat with two US professionals (Burdick and Melges), and a professional from Italy (Frederico Michetti). They were awsome, as their results show. They also were very nice gentlemen to race against. In fact everyone in the top five was a pro sailer but us. It was great racing but cold.


Place Boat# Skipper R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total Pts
1 I-45 A. BURDICK 3 1 1 2 2 9
2 M-9 T. BURTON 9 5 2 1 5 22
3 V-37 A. BARKOW 1 16 3 3 4 27
4 V-123 K. JEWETT 7 4 4 13 1 29
5 X-751 J. GLUEK 17 6 16 12 3 54
6 I-71 K. WRUK 11 11 14 8 12 56
7 GL-7 T. SUTHERLAND 10 18 7 10 13 58
8 WH-77 T. MUNROE 22 9 9 7 25 72
9 I-0 B. PORTER 2 2 46 BFD 4 21 75
10 MA-14 C. HORROCKS 33 13 8 20 14 88
11 W-47 L. HILL 4 8 21 29 28 90
12 CR-100 B. WALTER 23 10 18 31 9 91
13 D-301 M. HETZLER 14 22 12 18 27 93
14 CR-66 R. TERRY 12 25 46 DNC 5 7 95
15 J-80 J. SCHLOESSER 26 23 10 21 18 98
16 I-14 M. JORDON 15 30 11 27 16 99
17 WA-99 C. CALL 8 19 46 BFD 16 11 100
18 D-55 T. O'KEEFE 16 22 46 DNC 6 6 106
19 H-13 P. HEANEY 24 28 23 14 17 106
20 H-7 L. SCHOOR 46 DNF 20 17 11 15 109
21 I-17 C. BEAUDAY/C. HARRETT 13 3 6 46 DNC 46 DNC 114
22 TO-101 A. BRERETON 5 26 13 25 46 DNF 115
23 X-11 C. BARKOW 6 7 46 BFD 46 DNC 10 115
24 D-20 D. EVERHART 27 21 19 17 33 117
25 CH-6 R. TURNER 25 14 46 BFD 9 26 120
26 H-33 T. TIEFENTHALER 35 12 15 35 24 121
27 WA-21 D. IRMSCHER 34 33 25 28 8 128
28 V-74 W. GRAVES 19 46 DNF 5 15 46 DNF 131
29 D-42 R. BEERS 18 34 29 24 31 136
30 WA-47 B. HENDRICH 30 15 46 BFD 23 23 137
31 GL-31 J. SUTHERLAND 39 17 20 37 29 142
32 I-22 M. GANNON 46 DNF 29 28 26 20 149
33 X-20 P. MAAS 40 24 22 34 30 150
34 X-4 E. QUADRACCI 28 46 DNF 26 36 19 155
35 CR-12 R. HALLIDAY 29 46 DNF 27 22 34 158
36 SC-22 W. HANCKEL 20 27 24 46 DNC 46 DNC 163
37 WA-200 R. LEMBERG 32 35 31 33 35 166
38 I-818 J. SIMMS 41 46 DNF 46 DNS 19 32 184
39 V-15 E. GOOD 31 31 30 46 DNC 46 DNC 184
40 D-1883 B. BUZZELL 46 DNC 46 DNC 46 DNC 30 22 190
41 D-66 P. MATTISON 21 46 DNC 46 DNC 32 46 DNC 191
42 I-564 S. SCHALK 36 46 DNF 46 DNS 46 DNC 46 DNC 220
43 I-333 F. DAVENPORT 37 46 DNF 47 DNS 46 DNC 46 DNC 221
44 TO-33 S. JOHANSON 38 46 DNF 46 DNC 46 DNF 46 DNC 222
45 WA-8 J. B. VAN METER 42 46 DNC 46 DNC 46 DNC 46 DNC 226

Voting Records

I find it annoying when someone says that Obama "has the most liberal voting record" when his record is similar to most of the other Democrats. The only difference is that he has a lot of NV (no votes) as, like McCain and Clinton, he has been campaigning.

Here is his actual voting record.

So the conservative National Journal compared Clinton and Obama. She was ranked 16th and he was ranked 1st in "liberal voting."

Guess how many times they voted differently? Twice. Does that really make Obama significantly more "liberal" than Clinton?

The hilarious thing is that Clinton voted against establishment of a Senate Office of Public Integrity while Obama and McCain voted for it's establishment.

The second vote they differed on was when she voted against allowing certain immigrants to stay in the United States while renewing their visas, while he voted for that.

That is it.

Now let's look at how often Senators voted with their party:

Here is the link for the 110th Congress.

Obama scores a 96.7% rating and Clinton scores a 97.2% rating. Humm, Obama must have voted with the Republicans more than Hillary. Seven Senators voted with their Party more often than Obama. I am sure it will surprise no one that Obama is a Democrat and votes that way.

The Democrat scoring lowest, in voting the party line, is Ben Nelson of Nebraska, with a 79.3% correlation to his party. The next worst is Landrieu and Bayh at 83%

Clearly most Democrats, and Republicans, vote predominantly along the party line. Republicans, surprisingly enough, have voted more often with Democrats than Democrats have voted with Republicans.

My conclusion is that calling Obama the "most liberal Senator" is either disingenuous or naive. It may make good political hay for the reactionary or uneducated masses, but it does not tell us much in terms of how liberal or conservative he is relative to other legislators.

McCain's Advisors, Lobbyists, and His DCI Problem

Taxes

KBR, the military contractor rewarded with billions in no bid contracts, avoids Social Security and Unemployment taxes. Why? Dick Cheney had KBR incorporate in the Cayman Islands.

Great, just flipping great.

More

Contrast in Two Political Broadcasters.

Both of these men are talented and influental.

Josh and his wife are new parents. I think Bill is without children, but writes books like "Kids Are Americans Too" and "The O'Reilly Factor For Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families."

Who would you want as a father?

Josh Marshall



Or

Bill O'Reilly (you will notice between the time I posted this and now, this video is "no longer available." Humm... O'Reilly being able to get this thing off the net should scare the hell out of Americans.)



Here is an edited version:

Oh My!

Voting Nuns -- Nope!

From TPM

"About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday, from a polling place, by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.
The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.
"One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives."

What is really funny is that they were turned away by one of their own Sisters at the convent.
Yet again the Indiana Voter ID Law : a real law enacted to solve a pretend problem. Unfortunately the Indiana Law will cause a whole bunch of legitimate voters to be disenfranchised.

GOP fears Obama, not Clinton

The Republican Party in North Carolina said Wednesday it's launching a television ad calling Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama too extreme for the state, despite the objections of GOP presumptive nominee John McCain.
The advertisement raises the scepter of Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, beginning with a photo of Obama and Wright together and a clip of Wright's contentious remarks about America.
"He's just too extreme for North Carolina," the narrator says in the 30-second spot.

Pensylvania

From Kos

(I had to format to the rightto ge the table to turn out readable)

"One of the arguments the Clinton campaign is making to the supers, hoping they'll overturn the will of the voters, is that Obama can't win certain demographics. Yet looking at the exit poll numbers, it's clear that Obama has actually been making serious gains the past six weeks.

Obama's percent of the vote:
OH PA
60 and older 28 38
White 34 38
White men 39 44
White women 31 34
Less than $50K 42 46
No college 40 38
College 51 49
Catholic 36 31
Protestant 36 53

What was a 10.5% win in demographically friendly Ohio has become an 8.6% win in similar Pennsylvania, except the state was even less black and with a much smaller youth voter population (Pennsylvania's seniors accounted for 32 percent of the electorate, compared to 23 percent in Ohio).

And, those gains were made despite the Wright controversy as well as manufactured bullshit about "bitter" and flag pins and whatnot.

On top of that, Obama has had to run against Hillary Clinton, against former President of the United States Bill Clinton, and against John McCain and the entire GOP apparatus, which has trained its guns on Obama hoping to give Clinton a boost.


Yet he continues to gain among most of Clinton's best demographics, is still raising more money, leads comfortably in delegates, leads comfortably in the popular vote, leads in states won, leads in the national polls, and does better in the head-to-head matchups against McCain.
So why should the supers spark an intra-party civil war by overturning the will of the electorate again?"

Very interesting interview on Iraq

Leila Fadel interviewd by Bill Moyers

Just back from being under fire in Sadr City this week, award-winning journalist Leila Fadel, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy, gives viewers on-the-ground analysis of the latest events and close-up look at the state of the war.

The blog by McClatchy reporters and staff is called "Inside Iraq"

From the blog:

"He told them how he killed a young man in Al Anbar province west of Iraq.
This killer along with his gang stopped cars and buses on the highway passing through Al Anbar to Jordan and Syria. He said he took aside one of the men to kill.

He was begging the killer not to kill him, his tears were not in fear of death, were not to beg to spare his life, it was for the sake of the woman he loved.

"Please let me marry her then kill me" the killer recalled him saying.

In his conversations with other prisoners, including my cousin who told me this story, the killer recalled his victim as saying his Juliet's family refused their marriage for ten years and then his family called him in Syria to tell him that her family agreed at last. He was coming back to get
married to the woman of his dreams, and she was waiting for him.

The killer told the men surrounding him that the young man begged him not to kill him, and he promised he would come back after ten days - but what love can this killer understand? He shot him in the head and killed him on the spot.

In the killer's nightmares, the young man says to him, "I begged you … Please let me marry her then kill me, I promised you to come back, Why?"

He told the men surrounding him that he had killed many but he doesn’t remember or regret any of them but killing this man. The killer was sentenced to death.

One of the inmates who was waiting for his imminent release thought it worthwhile to go and to find that woman and tell her: Your man begged for his life to marry you -- not for fear of death itself -- and he didn’t let you down. He was murdered in the middle of nowhere.
So, he asked the killer to give him the name of the victim.

The killer replied he didn’t know, he asked from what tribe? The killer didn’t know, he asked from what sect? The killer didn’t know, he asked him from what province? The killer didn’t know.

Then he asked him, then why you killed him? The killer said he cannot remember, whether it was the victim's haircut or the way he was dressed or the music pouring from his car.

I hope and wish that one day someone will tell the woman he loved how he died; someone will tell her that those killers who kill every day do not distinguish between people, their color or their belief.

Someone to tell her that those killers are addicted to killing and one way or another they are punished.

Someone to tell her that your man didn’t fear death; his fear was to die without marrying you. "

Rep. Bachmann, R-MN

Why does Rep. Bachmann remind me of Kathleen Harris? They are both way too wacky for even the main stream press to ignore.

From The Hill:

"Ten of the 14 people Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) hired early last year have left the freshman’s office, according to public documents and sources familiar with the personnel changes.
The casualty list includes two chiefs of staff, a district director, a press secretary, two legislative assistants, a staff assistant, a caseworker, an outreach and grants coordinator and a district scheduler."

Taxes and the debates

I do not know what is so difficult about taxes.

Why can't candidates say "look at your tax return. If line 7 is over 250k your taxes will go up. If line 7 is under 250k then your taxes will stay the same, or go down.

If line 13 is where you make most of your income you will see your taxes rise to about 20%, from the current rate of 15%. If you do not have much income on line 13 then don't worry about tax increases."

For most wealth Americans, the vast majority of income shows up on lines 9a, line 9b and line 13. These are taxed at a 15% rate, far below what most Americans pay on line 7 at 25%.

Look at your own return. Would a tax increase on lines other than line 7 make a difference? Probably not.

Cure for Cancer?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml

Two of my favorite episodes on TV