Just Regular Folks

Cindy McCain is filthy rich. Most of America already knew that. The recent “how many houses do the McCain’s own?” hoopla has uncovered some strange findings about how the obscenely rich live.

I guess when you inherit a $100 million company you might already be used to owning houses you don’t even know about. The Politico ran an article that goes into great detail about the transactions regarding the properties, their cost and who lives in them:

Politico's analysis of the McCain records found that five of the eight
properties were purchased between the summer of 2004 and this February, for a
total of $11 million. And the analysis found that the McCains hired additional
household help in 2007.The five new properties are all condominiums, and they
include three in Phoenix — one of which became the couple's primary Phoenix
residence after a Cindy McCain family trust in 2006 sold for $3.2 million the
house in which they raised their children — and a pair outside San
Diego.The new properties joined three previously owned by Cindy McCain, her
dependent children and their trusts: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where
John McCain has entertained staff, prospective
running mates and political
reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that's been John McCain's
Washington-area residence since 1993; a La Jolla, Calif. condo that is home to
Cindy McCain's elderly aunt and on which the trust recently paid nearly $7,000
in back taxes.The condo that
serves as the McCain's primary Phoenix residence was purchased
in 2006 for $4.7 million by Cindy McCain's trust. It is a 6,600-square foot
unit.

The article continues with more details:

Less than one year after the McCains acquired it, a corporation
controlled by Cindy McCain bought
another condo on a lower floor in the same building for $830,000.And, in
between, the corporation plunked down $700,000
for a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom loft condo for their then-22-year-old
daughter, Meghan, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New
York's Columbia University. The unit is now
listed for sale at $730,000.Cindy McCain, through another family
corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an
exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for
its high percentage of military retirees. In an interview with Cindy McCain in
the June issue of Vogue magazine, conducted from the newer Coronado condo, she
explained that her husband, a Navy veteran, initially wasn't keen on the idea of
a pied-à-terre in Coronado."When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not
a beach person, said, 'Oh this is such a waste of money; the kids will never
go,'" she said in Vogue. "Then it got to the point where they used it so much I
couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."

LOL! So the right wants to paint Obama as an elitist and Cindy McCain needed to explain how she came to have a second “pied-à-terre in Coronado”! Oooh, that’s just too much! The McCain’s even needed to hire more servants for all their homes:

The McCain’s increased their budget for household employees from $184,000
in 2006 to $273,000
in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.The additional cash supports an
"increase in the number of employees,"

I’m sure most of the country can empathize with the pinch of a quarter million dollars in servant staffing costs for our many pied-à-terre homes. It looks like ol' Cindy and John are just regular folks after all!

Battle in Seattle Update

Thanks to the three people from the Lansing area who clicked the demand it button so we can see the movie Battle in Seattle. Unfortunately, three isn't going to make it happen. It will take at least 50 more to make sure that people see this movie that helps union workers tell the story of how bad trade policy has resulted in job loss and economic hardship for workers in Michigan.

It takes less than one minute to take action on this. You can opt out of receiving any junk email very easily by just clicking a button.

As it stands, we're tied with Ann Arbor, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Santa Cruz, California. We're being beat by Paris, France. Let me repeat that, Paris, France is beating Lansing. Sydney, Australia, Dallas, Texas and some little town in Germany are also beating us.

It's simple. Click here . The click the yellow DEMAND IT button on the right side of the screen. Enter the necessary information which does NOT include your name and actual address, just your zip code. Thirty seconds later, you are done. You can also watch the trailer at the link above as well.

Please copy and paste this post into an email and send it to friends asking them to particpate. Los Angeles California is leading and we need about 100 more people to take action. Thanks.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

With the republican slime machine in full swing I have been noticing more and more lies on the “Politifact Truth-O-Meter”. Here is a list of the current lies against Sen. Obama so absurd that they could only be labeled “PANTS ON FIRE”. Sadly these are only the “Chain e-mail” lies and this list does not include the “false”, “Barely true”, “Half true” or “mostly true” which also chronicle deceit from the right wing. You should really check out the growing list of lies!

From Obama's book: "I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race."
Obama didn't write that

Obama's wife wrote a paper in college that said America was a nation founded on "crime and hatred" and that whites in America are "ineradicably racist."
Her senior thesis doesn't say that "His true name is Barak Hussein Muhammed Obama."
No Muhammed or Mohammed in Obama’s name "Obama ... gave almost a million dollars to the (Kenya) opposition campaign who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga."
‘Not a cent’ from unrelated Obama

Obama thinks the national anthem should be "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing."
Obama e-mail: It's not The Real Thing
"According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ ... will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent ... is it OBAMA??"
Complete distortion of the Bible

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones on life support

This is terrible news from Ohio.

I will remember her not only for being the first African-American woman to represent Ohio in the House but as one of the few democrats that stood up in the face of numerous claims of voter irregularity in Ohio after the 2004 election.

Thoughts and well wishes to Jones and her loved ones.

Stupid S*%# from Planet McBush pt. 5

Tons of nonsense coming from the McCain crew lately! Here we go.

The hypocrites over at “Focus on the family” posted a video asking members to pray for rain during Sen. Obama’s acceptance. The video asked for “rains of biblical proportion” and then was more specific; "I'm talking ‘umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain,'". After receiving some negative feedback and national attention they did their best to bury the video but they don’t know the blogosphere very well! Right wing watch has it. Good as you has it. And both of these sites have the Olberman video listing Stuart Shepard (the guy asking people to pray for rain) as the worst person in the world. Sad.


In case you missed the flip-flopping episode McSame had over Social Security/Payroll tax issues Think Progress has a great summary here. McSame then flip-flopped on Affirmative action. Interesting to see his top aides scramble to throw up spin after each of these items but the best had to come from top econ adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin telling Slate that just because McCain says something publicly about a policy, “that doesn’t mean it’s official.”

I am sure you have seen the ads with John McCain in front of wind turbines touting his green credentials. However truth be told McCain has missed votes EIGHT times over the last year to renew investment tax credits for the green technology his commercials would have you believe he supports. I know what some right wing apologists will say; “he was out on the campaign trail when the votes took place”. WRONG. There was at least one instance when he was in his senate office and wouldn’t leave to vote. Let’s hope, as Thomas Friedman points out in his OP-ED in the NY Times, that Americans are a little smarter than McSame thinks:

Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who
think Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them
wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted
for such renewable power — when you didn’t.

And finally if you haven’t seen the running tally of McSame Flip-Flops check it out!

The Official John McCain Flip-Flop List

Calling All Fair Traders- Need to Take Action

(I have put the link to the site for the “Battle In Seattle” on the left. If you go to the site you can request that the film come to your neck of the woods. As “Mother” outlines in this post, most film industry executives don’t want to have this movie seen in theatres. The film is going to be screened at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. I have pulled the post back up so that we can get some requests to have the film in Lansing. Farleftfield.)

There's a film lingering out there that the corporate establishment doesn't want you to see. It's called Battle in Seattle The film stars Woddy Harrelson and Charlize Theron to name a couple of the big stars in this great film. The real star of this film is the story itself.

The story is about the 1999 protests surrounding the WTO meeting in Seattle ,Washington. Most people saw images of Seattle on fire and it looked like a war zone. What people didn't get to see were the peaceful protests being waged by labor, environmental, family farm, public interest groups and international organizations. We instead saw footage of anarchists breaking and burning stuff around Seattle and people assumed it was these pesky do-gooders mentioned above that were responsible for untold millions of dollars worth of damages. This wasn't the case at all. Battle in Seattle tells the real story of how the FAIR TRADE movement in America spread it's wings in Seattle. Major film distributors don't want that story told. They like NAFTA, CAFTA and China Currency manipulation.

We can help make sure that people do get to see the real story.

By simply going to this link you can hep bring this film to your city or town. What's happened is the director and producers of this film have ended up having to do all the distribution themselves. By going to the link above and passing it on to friends and family asking them to do the same, movie theatres will be able to gauge interest in the movie and if enough of us take action, more people get a chance to see this movie.

Why is this important?

People involved with Labor, enviro and public interest groups (to name a few) know how important our trade policy is to stopping the export of good jobs and decreases in wages. This movie is an organizing tool. People will go to see this movie based on it's star power and will leave saying, "yeah, the WTO stinks, maybe this is why my job stinks and I can't get ahead..what can I do to fix this?" An activist, future labor union member/environmentalist concerned citizen is born.

This is not a dry documentary type of film. It's an education wrapped into an action film. I've spoken to many people who were in Seattle, who helped organize Seattle and they say that this film hits the nail on the head. many of these organizers were consulted by the director as well.

So please, click the links and pass this around. Oh yeah, and check out the trailer for this film and go see the movie if you like it.

What a Long Strange Week It's Been!

It has been a strange week for me so far. I was thrilled to get to see the next President Monday at the Lansing Center. I was able to meet and speak with Rep. John Conyers,



how cool is that? I had my letter to the editor published in the LSJ on Monday (I still will not link to them!) And I received 37 votes in a district that I don’t even live in! I also may have been elected in two different districts!

I was running for precinct delegate in City of Perry Precinct 1. I received my letter stating that unless changes were necessary my name would appear on the ballot as the letter outlined. No changes were necessary and one other person was running for five slots. Both of us would be elected as long as at least one person voted for us and no other write in candidates signed up. My wife called early in the morning while I was at work and told me that my name was not on the ballot. She said after asking about the mix up the poll workers found that my sign up papers were in order and that as long as someone voted for me I would win. To me that is not the point. It angered me to find out later that only the Democratic precinct delegates were dropped from the ballot for my precinct. I left a message with my Republican county clerk asking what will happen regarding the votes in two precincts and why only the Dem side of ticket was left off the ballot.

Shiawassee County had numerous voting issues. In the City of Corunna they had this posted on the door:


Most of us know that this statement is false and would take a guess that voters who may have forgotten their ID didn’t bother to come back after getting home and sitting in the la-z-boy!

So it looks like there may be a lot of work to do in Shiawassee County before the big day in November comes!

The Main Event pt. 2

(Due to the length of the posts regarding the Shiawassee County Election ’08 Primary Candidate Forum I have split the coverage into 3 parts; the County Commissioner debates and the Sheriffs debate parts 1 and 2.)

Question: should the Sheriffs Dept be forthcoming with information. (the question was getting at Wilson’s withholding information from the press.)
Braidwood detailed some information regarding how detective work is done, informing us that sometimes details need to be withheld to be able to incriminate a suspect. He also detailed the example of a series of break-ins and the publics need to know that these things are happening. Braidwood said that it is very important to inform the public and the press and often they are the ones that give the department the information necessary to solve a case. He looked great being able to talk about his years on the force and doing detective work; Braidwood looked really knowledgeable with this answer.

Finnegan echoed Braidwood and made a joke about her having to follow him answering. The audience laughed and she made the best out of having the question so thoroughly answered right before her.

Wilson seemed bothered by this question and it showed. He said sometimes the press will push their way onto the scene of a crime or an accident before the department is ready for them to be there. He said that the reports on crimes or accidents need to be reviewed by the department before being made public. He listed what seemed like 10 different people or departments that had to look info over before releasing it to the public. Not only did he seem irritated with the question but it was obvious that the press got under his skin.

The next question was about Finnegan not providing her campaign finance records on time. She answered that she was willing to take the fine so that certain people wouldn’t be revealed as contributors. This sounded suspect but she clarified by saying that some donors had asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal from Sheriff Wilson. I would assume that she was implying that members of the Sheriffs department had donated to her and were afraid that Wilson would try to get back at them.

Question: describe the reputation of the Sheriffs department.

Wilson said the reputation was excellent. He said that he sat there everyday and received compliments all day long. Wilson said he rarely got a complaint but when he did the department addressed it. He tried very hard to act as if there was nothing going on at the department.

Braidwood said the reputation of the deputies was excellent. He said however that the status of the department is broken and that the department needs healing. This could only come from integrity, common sense, humility, leadership and support from the Sheriff. He worded this answer very well and it resonated with the crowd.

Finnegan echoed Braidwood on the reputation of the department staff. She also detailed the questions from people while campaigning “what’s going on at the Sheriffs department?” they would ask over and over again. People are worried about the department. The community should be as proud of the Sheriff as it is of the department. Finnegan answered the question really well.

The Main Event

(Hopefully you have already read the first part of this series: Shiawassee County Election ’08 Primary Candidate Forum. I had to break up the Sheriffs debate into 2 parts, here is the first.)


Shiawassee County Sheriff: Republicans; Jon Wilson, Deana Finnegan, Donald Gauthier. Democrats; George Braidwood, Edward Beyett.

Edward Beyett was the only one not present.

This section of the forum was held a little differently; all of the candidates were seated on stage and each received 90 seconds to respond to questions.

Question: would you describe your style of management as it pertains to your workforce. (This was my question)

Braidwood started off with teamwork. He noted that in a Sheriffs Dept. that the command staff must have communication with the Sheriff over the goals of the department. Braidwood said that it has been 2 years since the command staff has met with the Sheriff and 6 years since the deputies have had a meeting with the sheriff. He also discussed the necessity of an open door policy for employees and the need to create an atmosphere conducive for openly discussing differences of opinion.

Finnegan said that Inspiration would be her management style. She echoed many of the same points as Braidwood. Finnegan added that the department should delegate jobs to those that know the job best and should utilize the entire staff.

Wilson said that the Sheriffs Dept. is a paramilitary organization. He said that he has an open door policy but that there is a chain of command and following protocol is necessary. Wilson said that the procedure manual detailed job requirements.

Gauthier: he seemed very nervous and almost bothered that he was answering questions. He made note that he wasn’t used to speaking in public and that we deserved better than his performance would indicate. He said this in the last question and I made largely rude and judgmental comments about him in my notes. I will refrain from including those notes and will also refrain from including commentary on his answers.

Question: what could you do to bring pride back to the department?

Finnegan said she wanted to bring the Department of Homeland Security back under the Sheriffs Dept. which may help with image and knowledge levels. She said that intimidation is not a way to inspire the deputies. Finnegan stated that you cant bring pride back into the department until there is a change in the leadership of the department.

Wilson said pride is an individual’s responsibility. He said that he would try to encourage that. He laid a lot of the responsibility of this on the command staff and then proceeded to talk about the equipment he had maintained for the department. Bizarre!

Braidwood said that immediately after taking office he would introduce his under Sheriff that was hired from within the department. He noted that when the department has the support of its Sheriff it will run better and create a better work environment for our deputies. Braidwood said that pride would also come from the example of leadership from its new Sheriff.

Question: this was a very lengthy question that boiled down to the deputies feeling that they could not speak freely and if the sheriff had retaliated against deputies who were speaking out. It also mentioned that officers were being told what they could attend or not attend asking if this had come from the Sheriff himself.

Wilson came to podium looking nervous and asked for the question to be repeated. He then acted confused and asked for clarification regarding the what to attend or not attend portion of the question. Wilson said that training is a valuable tool and should not be considered a waste.

Braidwood said that the only functions that members of the Sheriffs office should not attend would be obvious and common sense. He said that this could be prevented from the start; officers who are proud of their job and their department don’t embarrass the department.

Finnegan pounced on the question and Wilson immediately! She charged that there had been a waste of funds and that cross training had nothing to do with it. She said to send a deputy to training that costs $2,000 and then put that officer back on road patrol where he would never use the specialized training was ridiculous. Finnegan knew exactly the situation the question referred to and really nailed Wilson with this answer.

Question: Is it true (directed at Wilson) that you wont rent out vacancies in the county jail because the Commissioners refused to give you a raise?

Wilson said no. he stated that he received a 4% raise in Jan. and had a 5% raise over 6 years. Wilson stated the reason for not renting out cells was the need for repairs throughout the jail. He went through what sounded to be a perfectly reasonable explanation of the need to section of inmates in different parts of the jail and how the necessary repair work made it difficult to house the current inmates alone. To someone who hasn’t been keeping up this issue he may have sounded reasonable.

Braidwood said that the Shiawassee County jail can house 160 inmates, it currently houses 110. He detailed with great accuracy and actual numbers the income a 10 inmate contract would generate for the county. ($100,000/year) Braidwood noted that the repairs would be a fraction of the profit and would allow for upgrades to the jail and new equipment for the department. He looked incredibly professional with his answer and really got a good response from the crowd.

Finnegan echoed Braidwood’s sentiments and ideas regarding the renting of cells. She added that renting jail space stopped only after Wilson was turned down for a raise.

The Politics of Confusion Regarding Drilling

The previous post regarding the whole drilling debate generated a post from an anonymous person claiming to be an economist (well paid at that). As you have noticed, based on the past posts on this blog, very few leave comments. And very few leave them anonymously. The author of the comment presents no factual data whatsoever in his post. He instead says the 16,000 employees at the Department of Energy don't know diddly. I'm sure that out of those 16,000 employees, a few have taken the time to read reports, study new technologies and earn a Masters or PHD in economics.

His supply and demand comment is a basic Econ 101 formula and is of course true. There are two sides, but he and Exxon oil company who just posted the largest profit in the history of a US Corporation choose to focus on the wrong side of the equation- increasing supply. We can do that, but not in the two year time frame that the author states without anything to back this false claim up. WE can have an immediate effect now by REDUCING demand. We can all start driving less, car pooling, we can all start asking our local governments and universities to retrofit their buildings to make them energy efficient and we can even do this to our own homes as well. There are tax advantages to doing this as well, check with the MI government. We can increase the amount of power we get from wind and solar thereby reducing our dependence on oil as an energy source. This could make the price at the pump at least stabilize while we move away from gas powered engines and toward advanced fuel technologies and electric cars.

The added bonus to REDUCING demand is that we kill three birds with one stone. 1) We start decreasing green house emissions and helping fix our world for our children and their children and so on. To me, this is the most important point. Drilling offshore and in ANWR makes this problem worse. What good are lower gas prices in 30 years if we can't breathe or even exist on our planet anymore? 2) We can create jobs in the manufacturing and wind industries in MI by demanding that we manufacture the equipment here and the routine maintenance on these mammoth turbines would be done by people in MI. 3) We stabilize or decrease gas prices for the time being through reducing demand.

I looked around a bit to find out where this person was getting his numbers, but didn't have a lot of luck or a lot of time. I did find an article that says, nobody really knows exactly how much oil we've used and how much is left. I've pasted the article below. The last line, based on an article in the Economist magazine (Oh, the irony!) is the focus. So, either this poster works for an oil company as a well paid economist or he is fronting for a very pro drilling group or political party or candidate. Moral of the story- Always ask questions, demand proof and accept facts.

Deffreyes' claim is strongly contested. Many analysts, notably the United States Geological Survey, believe that, due to continuing exploration, as well as technology that allows more efficient oil extraction, we are at least twenty years from Hubbert's Peak. http://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-060/ The number of unknowns, though, is great. Both corporations and nations carefully shield their oil data so that, according to investment banker Matt Simmons, "We are now flying totally blind" (Economist 11).

The whole article is here

I thank our anonymous friend for posting as I hope we all learned a bit more about what we're up against. I can only conclude that based on the lack of supporting materials, sound reasoning and name calling that our friend isn't who he claims to be. Which makes me happy as it means even more people are paying close attention to this blog.