If you follow the financial news and I am guessing more and more people are these days you might have noticed something quite disturbing this morning.

Three major oil companies have posted their third quarter results and the numbers are staggering. First off Exxon mobile the world's largest company posted profits of 14.8 Billion dollars. That's 14.

Do you read the papers every day or get on to your computer to check out the world news? If you have you might not read all the news has to offer in the ways of the government and their spending. Our government has gone up in smoke and is now trying to make money appear from out of the air, so to speak. If they can't make enough and find some way to cover this nonexistent money, they will have to ask us to let them raise our taxes.

Have you ever wondered where our nation's pride went? You used to ask someone about what was the biggest thing that they loved about this country and you could see the fire in their eyes when they would talk about this country.

Now it seems like if you would go around and ask this same question, you might not see this fire as bright. It seems like the spark has all but gone out for some of us because we don't feel like this government is out to help this country or us.

Up coming Election, remember history

This week 30 year mortgage rates rose over half a point. This is the largest one week increase this year. It's interesting that the rate increases happened after the bailout was passed by the government. Although this is not a sign the bailout will fail its not a positive sign of its future effectiveness. The primary purpose of the bailout was to influence banks to lend.

I was browsing the latest IBD poll and it finally struck me. I had this idea brewing for the past few weeks now and this particular poll hit a nerve.

As you know a massive government bailout was passed with the goal of saving the economy. The Oct. 4, 2008 front page headlines in the SJR "Bailout is coming, but will it work?" Good question. In my opinion the headline should have been "Bailout coming, was it necessary?"

The bailout represents much more than the $857 billion dollars of your tax money pledged to be spent to save the economy.

The need for tax shifting - lowering income taxes while raising taxes on environmentally destructive activities - in order to get the market to tell the truth has been widely endorsed by economists. The basic idea is to establish a tax that reflects the indirect costs to society of an economic activity. For example, a tax on coal would incorporate the increased health care costs associated with breathing polluted air, the costs of damage from acid rain, and the costs of climate disruption.

It is not about regulation and de-regulation, as Washington lawmakers would like you to believe. It is also not about the inability to control derivative transactions, as self-styled experts are claiming on your television sets. In fact, if the facts are closely scrutinized, the alarm bells are all ringing the wrong jagged tune. What we are facing today is the complete lack of comprehension of the very nexus which triggered the most remarkable phase of capital accumulation following the Second World War.

Here we are, in the midst of a presidential campaign, trying to select a new leader for what is still the most economically powerful nation on Earth. The candidates are kissing all the babies they can get their palms on and smiling until their cheek muscles ache; but will they be able to produce any of the changes they talk about? Do we really want them to?

90% of all Americans are investors and, as such, there are issues that we need to hear about from the man who would be king.

Bruce Hoffman, in his book Inside Terrorism, devoted an entire chapter just to the definition of the word TERRORISM. In an attempt to formulate a workable definition he consulted everything. Part of the difficulty in defining the word, Hoffman pointed out is its inconsistent application, and opposing views.

William Boykin, who led the hunt for Osama bin Laden said it was the fight against Satan, This sort of hubris hardly different from Osama bin Laden claiming a holy mission to rid the world of infidels.

The vast majority of Americans are investors, although many don't realize it. The vast majority of Americans are creative with their 1040 numbers, although most won't admit it. The majority of Americans would agree that investing, retirement planning, and estate preservation would be easier to manage if the Internal Revenue Code was comprehensible.

The parade of promises is marching down Main Street. For too many months to come, politicians of all descriptions, parties, and ideologies will be courting our votes... they have the cure for all that is wrong in the world, they tell us. With crystal clear hindsight, every candidate criticizes the decisions of every incumbent, from the Town Council of Podunk to The Presidency itself.

Are we missing the big picture in the debate over immigration reform? I'm not just talking about the misguided politicians who tried to shove a ridiculous amnesty bill down our throats. Have we the people allowed what really happened to go over our heads?

This recently defeated attempt to allow millions of illegal aliens to get around the law is not the first of its kind.

Hillary Clinton is making a bid to be the first women to be president. Frankly, she has a legitimate chance and if she won the democratic nomination it would not be a surprise. But what do we know about Hillary? Here is a summary of some issues and her stance

Iraq War

Clinton voted YES to engage US troops in Iraq and voted no to a timetable to exit Iraq.

The U.S. is not only losing a war in the middle east, but also approval from the rest of the world. The reasons for this are ostensibly because we seem to have interests, and not friends. The deeper reasons for this lie in the psychological paradoxes of the American mind.

The chaos of the global jihad has come to the streets of Western Europe.

European cities that have stood for centuries have been rocked by wide spread violence. The children of immigrants who came to Europe post World War II as part of guest worker programs have rejected modern society, are now frustrated by unemployment, and have cast aside the holy and peaceful Islamic teachings of their parents in despair.

I have a hard time with all the politians not listening to the american people! For example the people (majority) want to do something about the borders NOW!!! The american people also want to fix the problem with the Iraq War. We believe that it was a mistake by our President (Bush) to go fight this war and that it has been handled terribly and we are also ashamed at the way it has been handled, but we also believe that we have to WIN.

Nonpartisan efforts to

Impeach Bush & Cheney


I have never seen this before and am quite amazed at all the effort these people have gone to, to make a elaborate site such as http://impeachforpeace.org/index.php

I can't say I agree with everything on the site but WOW is all I can say.

By Louis Maurer

Currier and Ives, 1860

Horace Greeley carries Abraham Lincoln into a Lunatic Asylum as followers of the Republican Party express their positions on various issues. They are saying:

Greeley: "Hold on to me Abe, and we'll go in here by the unanimous consent of the people."

Lincoln: "Now my friends I'm almost in and the millenium is going to begin, so ask what you will and it shall be granted."

Woman: "Oh! what a beautiful man he is. I feel a 'passional attraction' every time I see his lovely face."

Man: "I represent the free love element, and expect to have free license to carry out its principles."

Man: "I want religion abolished, and the book of Mormon made the standard of morality."

African American: "'De white man hab no rights dat cullad pussons am bound to spect.' I want dat understood."

Woman: "I want womans rights confered, and man reduced in subjection to her authority."

Man: "I want everybody to have a share of everybody else's property."

Man: "I want a hotel established by government, where people that aint inclined to work, can board free of expense, and be found in rum and tobacco."

Man: "I want guaranteed to every citizen the right to examine every other citizen's pockets without interruption by Policemen."

Man: "I want all the stations houses burned up, and the M.P.s killed, so that the bohoys can run with the machine and have a muss when they please."