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Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Posted: September 19, 2008 05:24 PM

The Country Can't Afford to Elect John McCain


We are in the worst financial crisis this country has faced in modern times. During these eight long years of Republican control, we have seen runaway greed, the deregulation of financial institutions and the mismanagement of the housing market resulting in the skyrocketing number of home foreclosures. This has led to a disastrous unraveling of the U.S. economy. We can't continue with four more years of the irresponsible practices and policies of the Bush administration.

The country can't afford to elect John McCain! In his own words he admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy. The day the stock market plunged 504 points, McCain agreed with President Bush that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." For 26 years in Washington, McCain has supported deregulation of the financial sector. He even chose Phil Gramm, a key player in the mortgage crisis, to be his chief economic adviser before the former Texas senator resigned in disgrace. With this type of judgment, who would be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration?

McCain has illustrated his lack of judgment time and time again. Not only did he pick an unqualified running mate, but he supported the Bush Doctrine, this preemptive, unnecessary war in Iraq, a war that Barack Obama was against from the beginning. Five years later, the war continues, costing the American public $435 million a day -- money that is desperately needed here at home.

So, as the war wages on and the economy continues to falter, as the government spends billions bailing out companies from bankruptcy, who is left to pay the bill? The American taxpayers -- the people who are working harder for less and are watching their 401K, pensions and life savings disappear. Barack Obama is fighting for these people.

We need a President Obama, a man of intelligence, integrity and vision, to end the war, to lift us out of this economic storm, and to lead this country back on the road to prosperity.


We are in the worst financial crisis this country has faced in modern times. During these eight long years of Republican control, we have seen runaway greed, the deregulation of financial institutions...
We are in the worst financial crisis this country has faced in modern times. During these eight long years of Republican control, we have seen runaway greed, the deregulation of financial institutions...
 
 
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05:29 PM on 10/06/2008
I am a moderate Republican. But I have become increasingly frustrated over the last few years. And while I don't believe either party can be fully blamed for our economic crisis, I do believe it is time to change directions from Republican agenda/leadership.
I am pro-life...but life is not just in the womb. And I dare say there's not a Republican ticket on the horizon who will be able to...or who is actually remotely interested in...overturning Roe VS Wade. Well...maybe Mike Huckabee.
There are MANY reasons why one should vote in this election. And as much as I have a Christian world-view...I absolutely believe in the concept of separation of Church and State. We should STAY OUT of each other's business. And that goes both ways. Churches should be given the ability to set their moral compass in whatever direction their faith allows, and government should have the ability to grant every person total equality under the law.
11:02 PM on 09/22/2008
Why is it that Republican politicians including McCain, Bush, Palin, Poulson (by the way, he took the Treasury position right out of being CEO of Goldman Sachs by the way) all look like deer caught in the headlights? Because they all are - caught with their hands in the cookie jars. Who me? Naw.
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Einstein44
11:00 PM on 09/22/2008
Barbra,

You are wonderful in every sense of the word..People who need people,are the luckiest people in the world..Let's put America back in shape.
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SCG
12:10 AM on 09/22/2008
Barbra,

Since your post is still here, I thought I'd ask a rhetorical question of sorts. In light of our economic situation, do the lyrics to "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" take on any new meaning, to you? I mean I understood the concept of the wolf being at the door, and everything. But the detail in this song is now much more clear to me.

Or were you wise to it all at the time when you were performing it?

Your fan,
Steven
08:14 PM on 09/21/2008
While we're on the subject, how about protecting our LGBT rights in CA by writing a check in support of the No on 8 Campaign?
08:11 PM on 09/21/2008
How timely. Bush about to destroy Wall Street.

Shock and Awe coming to a neighborhood near you.
06:33 PM on 09/21/2008
Amen! Thanks for your simple, skillful, to-the-point prose. It's refreshing.
05:24 PM on 09/21/2008
Oh Babs... where am I supposed to start? First off, the last 2 years, the Democrats controlled both House and Senate, but made double sure that there is no control of Fannie & Freddie. Top three recipiants of Fannie & Freddie donations? Dodd, Obama and Kerry. Obama, in his less than 4 years in the Senate managed to get over $1m from companies such as Goldman Sachs, Lehmann Brothers or AIG. That's more than $250.000 per year. McCain on the other hand receives a miserly $30.000 per year from them. So, who is in the pocket of Wall Street?

Yes, McCain has said that he does not know much about the economy. This is honest, because the economy is not his strong suit. National Security is. Military and foreign policy is. Obama does not have much knowledge about the economy, but other than McCain, he is pretending to know more than he does. What is more honest?

McCain's running mate still has to prove her value. Let's see what the debate will show.

And if you really believe that Obama is "a man of intelligence, integrity and vision, to end the war, to lift us out of this economic storm, and to lead this country back on the road to prosperity" then I have a nice plot of land on the moon that you might be interested in...
06:41 PM on 09/21/2008
Forest Gump is pretty honest. Would you vote for him? Just what do you think a Dem controlled Congress can accomplish with a Republican president or with less than a supermajority in the Senate. Ever heard of senatorial filibuster? Ever heard of a veto? How many times has Bush exercised his veto power since 2006? Bush has used his veto power 12 times since 2006. Before 2006 he never used it once. That is just typical GOP-babble: use an arsenal of political instruments to prevent the Dems from being able to do anything in Congress, and then blame them for doing nothing. What do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror each day?
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care4mypeeps
06:58 PM on 09/21/2008
Why are people so blinded by their own bias, while pledging total allegiance to Mc Cain and Palin knowing full well that Mc Cain and the Keating 5 set the stage for the devastation of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae?

Not to mention the willingness of Mc Cain to bomb Iran with his take no prisioner attitude he keeps pushing to the forefront.

It is mind boggeling how anyone can just flippantly dissmiss the hard work and accomplishments of a candidate who is solid in his direction as to where he wants the Country to go. The Mc Cain camp keeps lying about Obama's record and the Media repeats the lies and allows them to go unchallenged for the most part making it appear that they will have a hand in the outcome.

I have got to take a deep breath and ask myself if people are just that stupid or are they just being senister or both?
05:12 PM on 09/21/2008
Please stop lying about the deregulation of financial institutions and the mismanagement of the housing markets.
Whatever valid points may be contained in an article is voided when the article is peppered with lies. The deregulation Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules were deregulated during the Clinton years. Just a fact. Bush tried to tighten them. This does not let him off the hook for flooding the market with cheap money that perpetuated the housing bubble. But he did not loosen the rules. Just a fact. He did try to reign them in, but was blocked by the Democrats in Congress. Just a fact.

Stop screaming that the economy is unraveling. It has a very, very bad sector that is tanking for various reasons, including, but not limited to, Wall Street's greed induced ineptness. It may or may not go into a recession, but we are not in a recession, so quit harping on about that.

Ideologies apart, just stick with the truth and your issues shine brighter.
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bibb
05:36 PM on 09/21/2008
I find it interesting that you have completely ignored Phil Graham's role in this whole mess, while attempting to shift the primary blame on the Democrats. Another point that you fail to mention is that the Republicans were in control of congress during the second part of the Clinton administration. If you have evidence that they were not involved, since they were drafting the legislation at the time, I'd like to see it.
06:16 PM on 09/21/2008
bibb and bamboozled,

Ease up and focus. I did not blame Clinton. He was part of the equation. It goes back to the Carter years if you want history.
But it is not all Democrat, but they are just as culpable. I can acknowledge that Republicans can share part of the blame, but you are incapable of doing the same from your side.
This is a Socialist experiment gone wrong for many reason. The absolute bottom line is: When you believe everyone deserves a house just because, and change regulations to that effect, and coerce lenders to loan to minorities who are not qualified for a loan, i.e. (buy at market price, %20% down of your own money, etc.), what do you think the end result is going to be? Nirvana? They are not going to make their payments, especially if attached top an arm that Clinton's pal Cuomo green lighted kickbacks to brokers resulting in this mess of ARM loans defaulting along with others that should not have a loan to start with.
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bamboozled
05:37 PM on 09/21/2008
Thanks for regurgitating the talking points, but we all know the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (which repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act authored by Democrats post-1929 crash) was authored by Republicans, then approved (split along party lines, with Republicans holding the Majority in Senate) while the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate, and Bill Clinton was a lame duck president (if you recall, after being impeached by the Republican-controlled House and Senate. Just a fact.

So don't just throw out "The Clinton Years" as if Clinton made every decision and HIS house and senate were green-lighting all HIS ideas.

That's what happened between 2001 and 2007, when Bush had a Republican House and Senate.
06:31 PM on 09/21/2008
Don't confuse the issue with facts! (Smile icon)

Amazing, isn't it, how we Dems end up being responsible for everything that goes wrong in this country, whether we are or not?
04:07 PM on 09/21/2008
Naomi Klein THE SHOCK DOCTRINE..gets it right! Find her on YouTube..Bill Maher show 9/19 this Friday I think. On with Andrew Sullivan. She lays it out --Bush/corporations find the perfect cover for them to wreck government for the (little) people and have taxpayers pay for their screw-ups.

Watch out for the blank check! Paulson wants...no oversight how $$ is used. THEY NEVER LOSE. Screw up everything and still work it to their advantage. It was NOT subprime loans ...it was the slice and dice derivative $$ packaging that cause the meltdown. GOP blaming Clinton and Dems-- already seeing rise in GOP approval polls.
SPREAD THE WORD --- it was Phil Gramm's 2000 deregulation that made con-game DERIVATIVES possible.
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TonyOnly
Truth matters.
03:09 PM on 09/21/2008
"In his own words he admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy. " When he speaks about the economy you can tell he has no idea what he's talking about. His eyes flit back and forth between the audience and the teleprompter and he looks like a deer in the headlights. He loves to tell everybody about how he advocated against Fannie May and Freddie Mac. He did do that but for all the wrong reasons. He did it not because they were being too greedy, but because they weren't being greedy enough. He wanted less regulation not more and felt there was an unnecessary level of consumer protection. How anybody could still be considering voting republican is beyond me. Between Iraq and the economy they've created the worst boondoggle in the history of the modern world. The do not deserve to be rewarded for what they've done.
03:05 PM on 09/21/2008
Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions:

1. Dodd, Christopher D-CT $133,900
2. Kerry, John D-MA $111,000
3. Obama, Barack D-IL $105,849
4. Clinton, Hillary D-NY $75,550


Obama/Biden = part of the problem!
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mikelartist
Arts bring light to the dark ages.
07:16 PM on 09/21/2008
That is for this year. Try looking at who they contributed to when the GOP was in power. Go ahead. We'll wait.
09:43 PM on 09/21/2008
Among the 83 lobbyists, aides and bundlers associated with the McCain campaign:

Phil Anderson: American Council of Life Insurers, Aetna, AIG, New York Life, MassMutual, VISA

Charlie Black: JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, National Association of Mortgage Brokers

Carlos Bonilla: Financial Services Roundtable, Freddie Mac

Alberto Cardenas: Fannie Mae

David Crane: Financial Services Roundtable, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, Association of Corporate Credit Unions, Freddie Mac

Arthur Culvahouse: Fannie Mae

Alfonse D'Amato: AIG, Freddie Mac

Melissa Edwards: Freddie Mac, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Access to Capital Coalition

Benjamin Ginsberg: Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, AIG Technical Services

Phil Gramm: UBS Americas

Alison McSlarrow: Fannie Mae, Hartford

Susan Molinari: Freddie Mac, American Land Title Association, Association of Consumer Credit Unions, Beacon Capital Partners, College Loan Corp, Coventry First, E-Trade, Financial Services Roundtable, Rent-A-Center


John Napier: Freddie Mac

Susan Nelson: AIG, San Antonio Credit Union

Aquiles Suarez: Fannie Mae

Don Sundquist: Freddie Mac, The Hartford

William Timmons Sr.: American Council of Life Insurers, Citigroup, Dun & Bradstreet, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group

Vin Weber: Agstar Financial Services, AKT Investment Corp., American Institute of CPAs, Ernst & Young, Freddie Mac, Louis Dreyfus Corp, PriceWaterhouseCoopers

For the complete gang of 83, see: http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archiv...street_aig.html
03:01 PM on 09/21/2008
THANK YOU , Barbra! You have my respect and admiration as always...
01:26 PM on 09/21/2008
Maybe McC, using his own brand of logic sees it all as good business giving tax breaks to corrupt corporations and bailing them out with taxpayer money....then sticking the bill to the people who actually do productive work for their country.
11:14 PM on 09/21/2008
I have a corporation. I have 4 employees. We do productive work. Do I have to be corrupt to get the tax break? What do I have to do to get the bailout? If I'm corrupt and get a bailout will I be on EZ street?
For every crooked company you read about there are a hundred others doing the right thing. Tax breaks, no matter how small, have a positive impact on what we can do with these companies (for the good of us, our employees, stockholders, and society in general). I'll bet either you or one of your immediate family members works for a corporation. Imagine that.
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anniegirl9
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tom
12:52 PM on 09/21/2008
I'm tired of hearing things like, "In no other country in the world is it possible for one to work hard and pull themselves up..." Actual data rejects that America's Dream even exist to any great degree and that in other countiries the crossover form one class to another far out numbers that in America. America's number one factor in determining future wealth is still, by and far, the class into which one is born.

And I'm also tired of hearing about how people who want affordable healthcare for thier children or a decent education are "intitalists." Those who really have a sence of intitlement are those who are born into wealth and who who reap the benifits of that wealth for the rest of thier lives without working any harder than any middle -lower income person who works 40+ hours a week and has to make hard choices between retirement savings or college funds for thier kids - or even harder choices like a tank of gas or a doctors visit for thier child.