Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[wart57]

I think Palin is lying about dressing as Tina Fey for Halloween. If she really believes in the Petocostal Religion, and is such a stauch christian, and creationism, she would have to also share the beliefe that Halloween is evil and celebrating the devil. I know all my in-laws are very against Halloween, and my wife and I argue about it every year.

That's a very good point (and I say this as someone with Pentecostal grandparents and aunts).

Not that it's really that big of a deal to me or anything...

1. If she lied about dressing up as Tina Fey, it's a tiny white lie and the kind of dumb thing that I don't want people talking about instead of issues

2. If she told the truth, it means she's less batpoop crazy than I thought she was by belonging to that religion

You aren't joking there, at my daughters christening at a Romanian Petecostal church two women started yelling stuff out in Romanian and then speaking in "tongues" my wife told me they were overtaken by the Holy Spirit and were speaking his words, that was the last time I went to that church.

I think it's a bit unfair/premature to suggest (or assume) she's lying. Not everyone follows a certain religion 100%. Sure, there are those that do.....but many don't. It could very well be that, because she had many kids, her family did have some sort of halloween or "fall festival" gathering. The fact is, we don't know.....to add to what JL said, it is sort of pointless to start focusing on this stuff. It's like demanding Biden's confession history or something...... just sayin. And, yes, I did think Fey's impression was outstanding!

Sorry, I am just going by what I know. The same folks that want to insist on creationism are usually the same ones against Halloween. I have been one of the people that has complained about all the crap being thrown at Palin, but this was just a personal insight I had.

[Simbagal23]

I think Palin is lying about dressing as Tina Fey for Halloween. If she really believes in the Petocostal Religion, and is such a stauch christian, and creationism, she would have to also share the beliefe that Halloween is evil and celebrating the devil. I know all my in-laws are very against Halloween, and my wife and I argue about it every year.

That's a very good point (and I say this as someone with Pentecostal grandparents and aunts).

Not that it's really that big of a deal to me or anything...

1. If she lied about dressing up as Tina Fey, it's a tiny white lie and the kind of dumb thing that I don't want people talking about instead of issues

2. If she told the truth, it means she's less batpoop crazy than I thought she was by belonging to that religion

You aren't joking there, at my daughters christening at a Romanian Petecostal church two women started yelling stuff out in Romanian and then speaking in "tongues" my wife told me they were overtaken by the Holy Spirit and were speaking his words, that was the last time I went to that church.

I think it's a bit unfair/premature to suggest (or assume) she's lying. Not everyone follows a certain religion 100%. Sure, there are those that do.....but many don't. It could very well be that, because she had many kids, her family did have some sort of halloween or "fall festival" gathering. The fact is, we don't know.....to add to what JL said, it is sort of pointless to start focusing on this stuff. It's like demanding Biden's confession history or something...... just sayin. And, yes, I did think Fey's impression was outstanding!

Sorry, I am just going by what I know. The same folks that want to insist on creationism are usually the same ones against Halloween. I have been one of the people that has complained about all the crap being thrown at Palin, but this was just a personal insight I had.

No, I get where your coming from......according to different websites, she was raised Catholic but has belonged to a few different churches as an adult. So, it could be that she doesn't have an issue with halloween.......or booze or short skirts.

[wart57]

I think Palin is lying about dressing as Tina Fey for Halloween. If she really believes in the Petocostal Religion, and is such a stauch christian, and creationism, she would have to also share the beliefe that Halloween is evil and celebrating the devil. I know all my in-laws are very against Halloween, and my wife and I argue about it every year.

That's a very good point (and I say this as someone with Pentecostal grandparents and aunts).

Not that it's really that big of a deal to me or anything...

1. If she lied about dressing up as Tina Fey, it's a tiny white lie and the kind of dumb thing that I don't want people talking about instead of issues

2. If she told the truth, it means she's less batpoop crazy than I thought she was by belonging to that religion

You aren't joking there, at my daughters christening at a Romanian Petecostal church two women started yelling stuff out in Romanian and then speaking in "tongues" my wife told me they were overtaken by the Holy Spirit and were speaking his words, that was the last time I went to that church.

I think it's a bit unfair/premature to suggest (or assume) she's lying. Not everyone follows a certain religion 100%. Sure, there are those that do.....but many don't. It could very well be that, because she had many kids, her family did have some sort of halloween or "fall festival" gathering. The fact is, we don't know.....to add to what JL said, it is sort of pointless to start focusing on this stuff. It's like demanding Biden's confession history or something...... just sayin. And, yes, I did think Fey's impression was outstanding!

Sorry, I am just going by what I know. The same folks that want to insist on creationism are usually the same ones against Halloween. I have been one of the people that has complained about all the crap being thrown at Palin, but this was just a personal insight I had.

No, I get where your coming from......according to different websites, she was raised Catholic but has belonged to a few different churches as an adult. So, it could be that she doesn't have an issue with halloween.......or booze or short skirts.

I like all three!

My wifes cousin got her ears pierced, and her own sisters told her she could not be around their kids because she was a bad influence because of the earings. That is how strongly some of the pentecostal faith is. So if Palin does not follow all of the rules, (many of them being very negative towards women), to me, is a good thing. My wife does not have her ears pierced, and she does not want our daughter to get hers pierced either.

[UK]

For all of you offshore drillers...here you go.

Please note the amount of oil added and the timeline when it goes online. This is a money grab disguised as pump relief. It will cause more damage to the environment and will provide no benefit of getting off foreign oil. If we want to get off foreign oil and become "energy indepedent", we need something else besides offshore drilling. (fuel cells, wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal...)



http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2127/85/

Take the money used to drill offshore and invest in the future...your kids will thank you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/opini ... edman.html

It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.

Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.

Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.

“McCain did not show up on any votes,” said Scott Sklar, president of The Stella Group, which tracks clean-technology legislation. Despite that, McCain’s campaign commercial running during the Olympics shows a bunch of spinning wind turbines — the very wind turbines that he would not cast a vote to subsidize, even though he supports big subsidies for nuclear power.

Barack Obama did not vote on July 30 either — which is equally inexcusable in my book — but he did vote on three previous occasions in favor of the solar and wind credits.

The fact that Congress has failed eight times to renew them is largely because of a hard core of Republican senators who either don’t want to give Democrats such a victory in an election year or simply don’t believe in renewable energy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/opini ... dman1.html

[GatewaySnayke]

It's a combination of both and it's high time to vote them out of office.

[wart57]

It's a combination of both and it's high time to vote them out of office.

Here is the summarry of the "energy bill" There sure are a lot of provisions in there.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xp ... ab=summary

7/24/2008--Introduced.
Jobs, Energy, Families, and Disaster Relief Act of 2008 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend various provisions relating to energy production and conservation and to individual and business-related activities.
Extends the tax credit for producing electricity from wind facilities through 2009 and the tax credit for closed and open-loop biomass, geothermal, small irrigation, hydropower, landfill gas, and trash combustion facilities through 2011. Includes marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy as a renewable resource for purposes of such tax credit.
Extendsthe energy tax credit for solar energy and the residential energy efficient property tax credit through 2016. Extends the energy tax credits for fuel cell and microturbine property through 2017. Allows a new investment tax credit for combined heat and power system property.
Provides funding for new clean renewable energy bonds to finance electricity production from certain renewable resources and for qualified energy conservation bonds.
Allows tax credits for investment in advanced coal electricity and coal gasification projects.
Extends through 2018 the temporary increase in coal excise taxes. Sets forth special rules for refunds of coal excise taxes to certain producers or exporters.
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to study and report to Congress on Internal Revenue Code provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.
Allows accelerated depreciation for certain property used to produce cellulosic biofuel.
Extends through 2009 income and excise tax credits for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
Allows a tax credit for new qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicles.
Exempts from the heavy truck excise tax idling reduction devices and certain insulation.
Excludes from gross income reimbursements for bicycle commuting expenses.
Increases and extends through 2010 the tax credit for alternative fuel vehicle refueling property expenditures.
Extends through 2013 the tax deduction for energy efficient commercial building expenditures.
Extends the tax credit for energy efficient appliances produced after 2007.
Allows accelerated depreciation for smart electric meters, electric grid systems, and certain reuse and recycling property.
Extends through FY2012 tax-exempt bond financing for qualified green building and sustainable design projects.
Extends through 2008: (1) the increased exemption amounts for the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and related AMT provisions; (2) the election to deduct state and local sales taxes in lieu of state and local income taxes; (3) the tax deductions for qualified tuition and related expenses and for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers; (4) tax rules for treatment of stock and dividends of regulated investment companies and for qualified investment entities; (5) tax-free distributions from individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for charitable purposes; and (6) the tax exclusion for amounts received under qualified group legal services plans.
Extends through 2008 various business-related tax provisions, including: (1) the tax credit for increasing research activities; (2) the tax credits for Indian employment and railroad track maintenance; (3) accelerated depreciation for qualified leasehold and restaurant improvements, for improvements to retail space, for motorsports racing track facilities, and for business property on Indian reservations; (4) the expensing allowance for environmental remediation costs; (5) the tax deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico; (6) the special rule for the tax treatment of certain payments to tax-exempt organizations by a controlled subsidiary; (7) issuance authority for qualified zone academy bonds; (8) tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia; (9) the economic development credit for American Samoa; (10) the special rule for charitable contributions of food and book inventories; (11) the increased tax deduction for corporate contributions of computer equipment and technology for educational purposes; (12) the special rule for the reduction in the basis of S corporation stock for charitable contributions of property; (13) work opportunity tax credit eligibility for Hurricane Katrina employees (through August 28, 2008); (14) increases in alcohol excise taxes payable to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands; and (15) the tax credit for nonbusiness energy property.
Extends through 2009: (1) the new markets tax credit; (2) the tax credit for mine rescue team training expenses; (3) the expensing allowance for advanced mine safety equipment; (4) the subpart F exemption for active financing income earned on business operations overseas; (5) special rules for the tax treatment of payments between related controlled foreign corporations; and (6) expensing of costs of certain film and television productions.
Extends through 2014: (1) the suspension of tariff duties on certain wool products; and (2) the Wool Research Trust Fund.
Makes permanent the authorities for: (1) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) disclosure of tax information relating to terrorist activities; and (2) IRS undercover operations.
Lowers in 2008 the earned income threshold amount for determining the refundable portion of the child tax credit.
Allows individuals who receive a settlement from Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation to average any settlement or judgment-related income over a three-year period or contribute such income to a tax-exempt retirement account.
Allows an excise tax exemption for certain wooden arrow shafts.
Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act, and the Internal Revenue Code to require group health insurance plans to provide equal benefits for mental health or substance use disorders.
Modifies criteria for penalties on tax return preparers who understate tax liabilities.
Amends the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 to extend such Act through FY2011.
Transfers from the Treasury $8.017 billion to the Highway Trust Fund.
Provides special tax benefits for individuals and businesses in federally-declared disaster areas, including: (1) expensing of business-related disaster expenses; (2) extended net operating loss carryover periods; (3) waiver of certain requirements for mortgage revenue bond eligibility; (4) income averaging; (5) additional tax exemptions for providing housing for individuals displaced by disasters; (6) employer tax credits for retention of employees; (7) extension of the replacement period for nonrecognition of gain for property; and (8) suspension of limitations on the tax deduction for charitable contributions; and (9) increased mileage rates for the use of a personal vehicle for charitable purposes.
Revises the program of tax incentives for investment in the New York Liberty Zone.
Sets forth revenue provisions relating to: (1) the inclusion in gross income of deferred compensation paid by certain foreign entities; and (2) increases in estimated tax payments of certain large corporations.
Requires brokers who are required to report gross proceeds from the sale of any publicly-traded security to report the holder's adjusted basis in such security and whether any gain or loss with respect to such security is long or short term.
Delays until 2019 the application of special rules for the worldwide allocation of interest for purposes of computing the limitation on the foreign tax credit.

[TimeForGuinness]

The good news is, a decent chunk of that "foreign oil" comes from Canada (~2MM bbl/day) and Mexico (~1.2MM bbl/day). Friendly allies. Additional good news is that Canada could ramp up to ~3MM bbl/day. Bad news is, Mexico will likely ramp down to nearly 0 over the next 10 years, as they will soon run into a defecit with their oil supply.

Now, how do we get to the happy zone of consuming ~10MM bbl/day that we could conceivably produce between the US and Canada?

I was going to post something with regards to getting most of our oil Mexico and Canada...thanks for reminding me.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petr ... mport.html

The only way to get into the "happy zone" would be to cut our consumption in half. How can that be done right now? If we could get the majority of car owners to hit the 25-30 mpg range and shift to a 4 day work week (10 hours per day)...I think we could get pretty close. Plus with the advances and production of hybrids and hopefully fuel cells...we could get there quicker than if we started drilling in ANWR.

JMHO.

[Freed Roger]

If Tina Fey really skewers Palin as stuff continues to come out it could really have an influence on the election.

I really seriously hope I don't live in a country where people will vote, and be influenced by what they have seen in an SNL skit.

Too late.

A lot of people don't follow the news closely and may not be aware of all the little issues until they see it parodied in an SNL skit. Look at all the people that get their news from the Daily Show. SNL is always huge during election seasons and it's hard to imagine it doesn't have at least some superficial influence on people's general impressions of the candidates and their stances on certain issues. Everybody was buzzing about SNL in 2000, I think we even watched the sketches in a class of mine (lockbox anyone?).

Meh - I've been saying that a lot lately. like a new-fangled toy.

who was satirized in 2000 and 2004 by SNL? Who still won those elections?

For every political action from these skits- there's at least one reaction. Or a backlash. In some regards, these skits sort of take the edge off these political clowns. Remember Dan Quayle ? what a complete undeniable dumbarse he was. But so many people felt sorry for him because of all the jokes. Nobody wanted to believe the reality on him. Same thing with GWB. People see the parodies and think better of him. like it proves he's just a clear-thinking decider and average joe like us.

IMO - the SNL skits made GWB look dumb. But not as dumb as he does to himself in a rare uncut live press conference without spin doctors to save him.

Tina Fey playing Palin will only make her seem like a more legitimate viable VP.

[UK]

People see the parodies and think better of him. like it proves he's just a clear-thinking decider and average joe like us.

I've never understood this concept.

I don't want them to be like me and/or the avg. American, I want them to be intellectually, emotionally, spiritually superior to me & not my equal.

I want the elite in gov't, not average.

[Freed Roger]

People see the parodies and think better of him. like it proves he's just a clear-thinking decider and average joe like us.

I've never understood this concept.

I don't want them to be like me and/or the avg. American, I want them to be intellectually, emotionally, spiritually superior to me & not my equal.

I want the elite in gov't, not average.

++Yep, me too.

anti-intellectualism has been in vogue for some time, sad to say.