That Obama....What a man!

Amazing: Obama Helped Stranded Stranger 20 Years Ago

Oct 05, 2008 - The Norwegian newspaper VG has reported a truly amazing story about a newly-wed trying to get to Norway to be with her husband, and the stranger who helped pay an unexpected luggage surcharge. The blog "Leisha's Random Thoughts" has translated the story.It was 1988, and Mary Andersen was at the Miami airport checking in for a long flight to Norway to be with her husband when the airline representative informed her that she wouldn't be able to check her luggage without paying a 100 surcharge:When it was finally Mary’s turn, she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness.-You’ll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway, the man behind the counter said.

Mary had no money. Her new husband had travelled ahead of her to Norway, and she had no one else to call.-I was completely desperate and tried to think which of my things I could manage without. But I had already made such a careful selection of my most prized possessions, says Mary.As tears streamed down her face, she heard a "gentle and friendly voice" behind her saying, "That's okay, I'll pay for her."Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before.-He had a gentle and kind voice that was still firm and decisive.

The first thing I thought was, Who is this man?Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that radiated from the man.-He was nicely dressed, fashionably dressed with brown leather shoes, a cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants, says Mary.She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her. Who was the man?Barack Obama.

Twenty years later, she is thrilled that the friendly stranger at the airport may be the next President and has voted for him already and donated 100 dollars to his campaign:-He was my knight in shining armor, says Mary, smiling.She paid the 103 dollars back to Obama the day after she arrived in Norway. At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker* in Chicago, and had started his law studies at prestigious Harvard university. Mary even convinced her parents to vote for him:In the spring of 2006 Mary’s parents had heard that Obama was considering a run for president, but that he had still not decided. They chose to write a letter in which they told him that he would receive their votes. At the same time, they thanked Obama for helping their daughter 18 years earlier.

And Obama replied:In a letter to Mary’s parents dated May 4th, 2006 and stamped ‘United States Senate, Washington DC’, Barack Obama writes:‘I want to thank you for the lovely things you wrote about me and for reminding me of what happened at Miami airport. I’m happy I could help back then, and I’m delighted to hear that your daughter is happy in Norway. Please send her my best wishes. Sincerely, Barack Obama, United States Senator’.The parents sent the letter on to Mary.Mary says that when her friends and associates talk about the election, especially when race relations is the heated subject, she relates the story of the kind man who helped out a stranger-in-need over twenty years ago, years before he had even thought about running for high office.

Sarah Palin, proud socialist

Sarah Palin, proud socialist
Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, October 28, 2008 4:23 PM permalink

The best part of Hendrik Hertzberg's excellent New Yorker commentary about McCain and Palin's failed attempt to convince people that Obama is a socialist is the final paragraph containing this boast from Gov. Sarah Palin:

The state that she governs has no income or sales tax. Instead, it imposes huge levies on the oil companies that lease its oil fields. The proceeds finance the government’s activities and enable it to issue a four-figure annual check to every man, woman, and child in the state. One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor is that she added an extra twelve hundred dollars to this year’s check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269. A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” Perhaps there is some meaningful distinction between spreading the wealth and sharing it (“collectively,” no less), but finding it would require the analytic skills of Karl the Marxist.

Like, Socialism

Source of Article

John McCain is disgraceful...

Yes it's true! Lou Dobbs has always been a racist, snobby, demonic piece of garbage!

Source of Article:

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lou Dobbs is a popular CNN anchor who hosts his own show, Lou Dobbs Tonight on the cable news network. Dobbs is known for being fair and unbiased in his reporting.

A loyal reader sent me this photo of Dobbs holding a box of Obama Pancake Waffles in a photo taken at a conference. The reader accuses Lou Dobbs of being racist.
If you’ve ever attended a major conference you know that there are always gift bags and freebies given away at conferences. So how does that make Lou Dobbs racist just because he was given a sample at a conference?

The reader points out that a post with this photo mysteriously disappeared from the Obama Waffles website.

Well, first off, I don’t think a company can manufacture waffles with Obama’s likeness and name without his permission.

Let’s choose our battles a little more carefully and try not to paint everybody with a sweeping racist brush.

Posted in Barack Obama, Politics, TV/radio . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or Trackback from your own site. This site is Gravatar enabled. Sign up to upload your own avatar.

We must be vigilant against the real terrorists!

Over the last week and a half, supporters at McCain/Palin rallies have yelled "kill him,"1 "terrorist,"2 "traitor!"3 and "off with his head!"4 about Obama. At Wednesday night's presidential debate, John McCain refused to denounce those outbursts or take any responsibility for the violent, hateful atmosphere he's helped create. Instead, he attacked civil rights hero John Lewis for calling him out on it, and tried to cast McCain/Palin supporters as victims of a smear.5 Either John McCain doesn't understand the dangerous words coming out of some of his loudest supporters' mouths, or he doesn't care. As the leader of his campaign, he has a responsibility to condemn and control hateful speech, especially direct threats on a presidential candidate. We need to show that Americans of all races won't stand for this. When enough of us stand together, we can force the mainstream media to amplify our message. Please join us: you can watch a video from Brave New Films about the atmosphere at McCain rallies, sign our open letter calling out McCain and Palin, and ask your friends and family to do the same, here: http://colorofchange.org/united/debate.html?id=2144-572732

McCain-Palin rallies have started to look more like mob scenes than political events. The candidates keep asking "who is the real Barack Obama?" (a question that also kicks off almost every McCain television ad).6 In response, supporters have yelled "terrorist!" and "traitor!" And the venom goes beyond Obama--one McCain/Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at a Black member of a news crew, saying "sit down, boy."7 The outbursts at McCain/Palin events have crossed the line into direct threats and suggestions of violence. Last week, at the mention of Obama's name, a McCain supporter yelled "kill him!"8--prompting a secret service investigation.9 A few days later, someone shouted "off with his head!"10 In the face of all of this, McCain and Palin haven't stopped for five seconds to denounce these violent outbursts. In fact they've tried to defend them 11,12--and their fear-mongering smear tactics continue. McCain and Palin are going down a dangerous path. Watching some of their supporters being interviewed shows the kind of fear their campaign is stoking and exploiting.13,14 McCain and Palin are clearly in the driver's seat. They've personally made it a point to use "terrorist" and "Obama" in the same sentence; their surrogates have repeatedly referred to Obama by his middle-name;15,16 and they keep pushing the discredited guilt-by-association smears that have long been debunked. All of it plays on false rumors spread by email: that Obama is Muslim (a myth designed to tap into anti-Muslim bigotry); that he is anti-American; and that he's somehow connected with terrorists.17 The strategy works and is powerful because it plays into the suspicions some White Americans have about Blacks: about our true allegiances and our trustworthiness.

In the end, it makes Obama's race a disadvantage without appearing overtly racist. A unified response As Americans of all stripes, we've seen how Barack Obama's historic candidacy has moved our friends and family to have a more honest conversation about race in this country. It's inspired a lot of people to step out of their comfort zone and confront racism in their own communities, with their friends, neighbors, and families. Now we have McCain, at a time of crisis in this country, pandering to one of the worst instincts in America. His campaign is playing to the kind of suspicion, hatred and fear that brings out the worst in us all, which history shows can lead to horrible consequences. We can fight back In the final days of this campaign, we can't let a desperate John McCain and Sarah Palin drag us down. If enough of us act, we can create a powerful story in the media about Black people and our allies of all races standing together against race-baiting and fear-mongering coming from the McCain/Palin campaign. But it will take a lot of us speaking in unison.

Will you sign an open letter to McCain and Palin, telling them who you are and why you won't let them move our country backward? We'll publish the letter and make sure John McCain is forced to respond. http://colorofchange.org/united/debate.html?id=2144-572732Thanks and Peace, -- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, Kai, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org PAC team ???October 17th, 2008

References

1. "Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame," Washington Post, 10/07/08 http://tinyurl.com/3wmg4c

2. "Obama called a terrorist" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvXf9AUHTqM

3. "McCain Supporter Yells Out 'Traitor!'" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiESklGDuH4

4. "McCain's 'Fellow Prisoners'," First Read, 10/08/08 http://tinyurl.com/4qc5vn

5. McCain-Obama Presidential Debate Transcript, Commission on Presidential Debates, 10/15/08 http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2008d.html

6. "TV Ad: Dangerous", John McCain campaign, 10/06/08 http://tinyurl.com/48j9uj

7. See reference 1.

8. See reference 1.

9. "'Kill Him' Yell At Clearwater Palin Rally Being Probed," Tampa Bay Online, 10/10/08 http://tinyurl.com/442vn5

10. See reference 4.

11. "McCain camp defends the behavior?," First Read, 10/10/08 http://tinyurl.com/4az7uw

12. "John Lewis vs. John McCain," First Read, 10/11/08 http://tinyurl.com/3m6qln

13. "The Sidewalk to Nowhere, McCain Supporters in Bethlehem, PA" (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itEucdhf4Us

14. "Misconceptions of Obama fuel Republican campaign" (video), Al-Jazeera, 10/13/08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0

15. "Florida Sheriff Intros Palin, Says 'Barack Hussein Obama'," (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woNYeyOQnuI

16. "McCain and Palin in Bethlehem: A live report!" Philly.com, 10/08/08 http://tinyurl.com/3wvq9x

17. "Who is Barack Obama?" Snopes.com, January 2008 http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

Pat Buchanan’s Uncalled For Attack On Colin Powell

Pat Buchanan’s Uncalled For Attack On Colin Powell

October 19, 2008 · 4 Comments


Source of Article

Marcus Comments: Sorry everyone, originally forgot to include the Source of the article!

Pat Buchanan has some very interesting comments in a segment on MSNBC Sunday afternoon with Chris Matthews. Buchanan felt that Colin Powell had sold out the Republican party by supporting Barack Obama. He eluded to a number of things saying that other generals were more qualified to be the Joint Chief of Staff, but were passed over to give the position to Powell. He felt that that Powell was not loyal to the party and had a hidden agenda. His own agenda.

This was a highly offensive assault on Colin Powell, by Buchanan, and was uncalled for. Certainly Colin Powell has a right to his opinions and does not need to get permission from anyone to voice his opinion or to get permission from conservative Republicans, before he decides to speak out on issues. Buchanan also said that Colin Powell supported Barack Obama, simply because both are black. Powell said during his announcement of his endorsement of Obama, that even though both are black, he made a conscious efforts to study both John McCain and Barack Obama, before making a decision on who he would endorse for the office of the Presidency, primarily because he knew that the issues of a black endorsing another black would come up.

Powell eloquently explained the thought process that he used in arriving at his decision and came up with a thoughtful, carefully crafted statement of why he decided to support Barack Obama. Yet Pat Buchanan could not accept this. Buchannan needs to know that we live in a changed America, not in the America that he envisions. . This is a new diverse America, with all types of people and no segment or race within American society has a premium on thoughts, actions , political agenda or patriotism.

Marcus Comments: Sorry everyone, originally forgot to include the Source of the article!

Olbermann calls on McCain, the fraud, to suspend his campaign

The Affirmative Case: Jay for Obama

The Affirmative Case: Jay For Obama
By Jay Allbritton
Oct 13th 2008 10:13AM

Like so many others, the first time I heard of Barack Obama was in 2004, when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. In his remarkable introduction to the American people, Obama showed he could communicate so effectively that one 20 minute speech made him a national political force. One of the ideas Barack Obama pushed in that speech was that America was not hopelessly divided. He went through a litany of touching anecdotes from individuals living in red states and blue states. All of these people had common problems and common expectations from the government. In the heat of one of the most vicious and partisan election cycles in a generation, Obama sold a lot of people on the idea that the best way forward for all Americans is to find common ground through pragmatic compromises and a deeper awareness of our common interests.

Once the long campaign began, Obama immediately staked his campaign to the belief that he could compete with Hillary Clinton and John Edwards financially while limiting campaign contributions to small donors. In so doing, not only did Obama manage to stay competitive with the approach, he tapped into a movement of mostly younger voters displeased by the campaign finance system that keeps politicians from being directly beholden to the people and instead hands the greatest influence to a few powerful special interests that inevitably become any campaigns' biggest contributors.

Perhaps the boldest change Obama will bring to Washington is a new economic orientation. For nearly 28 years the people running our country's economy have primarily adhered to a "trickle down" approach that has left the middle class in progressively worse condition. Year after year, corporations face less regulation while workers face more restrictions, longer hours and lower wages. Barack Obama promises to change that. That doesn't make him a socialist. On the contrary, that puts him directly in line with an American economic tradition that has gone off the rails just as it did in the days before the Great Depression.

Obama's middle class-first approach to the economy will put more money in the hands of workers through tax cuts, by creating better jobs to that will repair our infrastructure, and by creating green collar jobs that will help us transition away from oil dependence. These forms of real economic stimulus will put a great deal of money in the hands of the people who need it, the people who will spend it and the people who work the hardest for it. Obama will bring a more balanced approach to foreign policy. When he met his former foreign policy adviser Dr. Samantha Power for the first time, the subject of diplomacy with Iran came up. She paraphrased Obama as saying this:

"I'm not afraid of Ahmadinejad. He's a Holocaust denier, he supports Hamas and Hezbollah, he has infiltrated Iraq, he's enriching uranium- and by being in the room talking to him, it's actually being tougher than lobbing these verbal grenades that Bush and Cheney toss from 5,000 miles away. Even if we fail to make progress on any of these issues, we will then have the international wind at our back, and we will have the capacity to mobilize a global response to his regime."

Because the Bush administration's focus diverted our military from capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, one of Obama's greatest accomplishments in his short three years in the Senate has been his commitment to securing loose nuclear material that could easily fall into the hands of al Qaida or the Taliban. In January 2007, President Bush signed a bill called "The Lugar-Obama Proliferation and Threat Reduction Initiative." Among other things, the law strengthened the ability of America's allies around the world to seize ships carrying potential weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, in the area of technology, Barack Obama is the only candidate with coherent ideas on how to utilize the massive advances made in computer technology this century to make government more efficient, transparent and accountable. In November of 2007, Obama gave a speech at Google headquarters that simply touched my geek side. In late 2007, the Obama campaign issued a position paper on technology that is nothing short of visionary. Obama promises network neutrality, government transparency, and universal broadband access. He plans to appoint a Chief Technology Officer who would "ensure government officials hold open meetings, broadcast live webcasts of those meetings, and use blogging software, wikis and open comments to communicate policies with Americans, according to the plan." Barack Obama often points out that his story could only happen in America.

While that is a hundred percent true, it is not the shifting settings of his life -- Kansas, Kenya, Indonesia, Hawaii, California, New York, Chicago, Harvard, The Senate -- that makes him the right person to be the next President of the United States. It is rather the unique mind and personality that have emerged from his amazing personal journey. Very seldom in American history have the challenges facing our country been so complex that they demand the person facing them in the office of the presidency to be so intellectually diverse. Barack Obama is the right person to lead us through these difficult times. More "Affirmative Case" endorsements:

Dave for McCain
Tommy for Obama

Donna Brazile is fed up with those lying liars!

Source of this post:

We've been waiting three days for this moment. This morning, the New Yorker finally posted video from "If I Were Running This Campaign," the Saturday morning panel featuring NY'er staff writer/moderator Jeffrey Toobin (swoon), and a bevy of his CNN colleagues, including Ed Rollins, Alex Castellanos, and Donna Brazile. Topics discussed: The GOP leadership, Bill Clinton, and Sarah Palin. As the 80-minute discussion wound down, Toobin raised the specter of race in the campaign, and Brazile, 48, let loose with an impassioned, ad-libbed exhortation that could be seen as a prescient, preemptive strike to the race-and-religion baiting tactics ("strategies"?) employed by the increasingly-ugly McCain-Palin campaign. Donna's remarks above; you can watch the entire video here.

Much of Black America is slipping fast into Third - World Economic Status - Drowning in Poverty

Much of Black America Is Slipping Fast into
Third-World Economic Status Drowning in Poverty

GUEST COLUMN: Phillip JacksonJuly 24, 2006
Source of Article

A recent report by the Heartland Alliance confirms what much of black America already knows: Black America is in serious trouble economically, and many black people are living in "deep poverty."Black people in America are not just poor by American standards; many of us are "third-world" poor.While some economists praise the American economy with talk of low unemployment, record housing starts and a booming gross national product, none of this tells the real story of a quickly declining black economy within America. For instance, 30 percent of black Americans in Illinois live in poverty compared with only 8 percent of white Americans.

According to the Children's Defense Fund, nearly one million black children in the United States are living in extreme poverty. While the official national unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, the official unemployment rate for blacks is 10 percent. Of course, the official unemployment rate does not include people who have given up looking for work and those who are underemployed. In 2003 in New York City, 48.2 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 were officially unemployed!

As American cities become more expensive to live in, black people, with our declining wealth, are forced by economics to leave these cities. Although things might be good economically in America, the majority of black people are living through their worst economic depression since slavery!Ironically, even as black people earn more money in the United States, the wealth gap between blacks and whites grows dramatically. Misery indices in the Black community -- poor and useless educational preparation, mass unemployment, low-quality housing stock, disintegrating communities, and failing families -- are rising.

According to a 2004 study by the Pew Hispanic Trust, between 1996 and 2002, the median net worth of blacks dropped by 16 percent.Black net worth declined to a paltry $5,998 per household, while the net worth for white households grew by 17 percent during the same period to $88,651. Twenty percent of black median net worth was in cash, approximately $1,200, with the balance comprised of home equity. The housing foreclosure crisis of the past eight years has caused Black America to lose between $72 billion and $93 billion in housing-equity wealth. "Black families lost 25 percent of their wealth during the jobless recovery from the recent recession," said Thomas Shapiro, a Brandeis University professor of law and social policy.This means that more black people are struggling in 2006 with such basic conditions as securing employment, paying rent or a mortgage, paying utilities and insurance, obtaining affordable health coverage and buying food.Shapiro also stated that only 26 percent of black families could survive more than three months after a major income interruption. The other 74 percent would be forced to seek government assistance, dip deep into savings, sell off assets, relocate with a friend or relative, file bankruptcy or become homeless!

In this economic depression, college is an unaffordable luxury for many black people. Higher education, once the reliable key to moving from low-income to middle-income status, is no longer an option. The portals that lead away from poverty, crime and despair are closing or have already closed. Generational poverty is inextricably intertwined with race. Hope for breaking the poverty cycle diminishes and another generation of the impoverished is born. Many blacks in America are slipping from poverty to deep poverty into a third-world status.We as black American families cannot wait for the government to save us. Annually, black Americans generate about $700 billion within the U.S. economy.

However, a 2005 report by the Target Market Group shows that we don't use our dollars wisely to improve our plight in America. For example, in 2004, we had collective purchases that included $22 billion for clothes, $10.7 billion for furniture, $28.7 billion for cars, $14 billion for phone service, $3.7 billion for consumer electronics (not computers) and $2.3 billion on alcoholic beverages.Unfortunately, the only area where we showed restraint in our spending was on books, where we spent only $257 million, down from $303 million in 2002. We spent more on our fingernails and our hair -- $6.3 billion on personal care -- than on books and reading materials.We must take control of our economic destinies to improve black personal finances, our family wealth and our community economies, and to help lift many blacks out of deep poverty.

TEN KEY SOLUTIONS FOR BLACK ECONOMIC WELL-BEING:
1. Start your own business. By starting your own business, you can hire family, friends, and community members. Click here for one great business to become a member of...
2. Get as much education as you can.
3. Stop renting an apartment. Save enough money to make a down payment on a house. Then buy a house.
4. Open savings accounts for your children, teach your children the value of money and take personal finance classes.
5. First, invest your money and your time in your skills, your knowledge base and your self-improvement. Second, learn how to let big companies work for you rather than you only working for them through stock ownership. And third, invest your money in the U.S. and global stock markets.
6. Manage your credit carefully and avoid unnecessary debt.
7. Get married! Two-person headed households are more viable economically. Marriage can be an economic advantage when both parties are aligned on financial priorities and fiscal realities.
8. Create a living strategy that includes good nutrition, plenty of exercise and proper rest so that you can share your good fortune in a long and healthy life. Health is wealth!
9. Contribute to your faith-based institution or invest in a social cause.
10. Create a will to pass on your accumulated wealth.Phillip Jackson is founder and executive director of The Black Star Project in Chicago. You may reach him at 773.285.9600 or by e-mail at http://mc620.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=blackstar1000@ameritech.net.

A letter from Michael Moore that's very interesting

MichaelMoore.com Mike's Letter
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=235
Monday, September 29th, 2008The Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,
Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it. "Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages. "At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees. "Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."

Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

3. Call your Representative in Congress and your Senators. (click here to find their phone numbers). Tell them what you told Senator Obama.

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

Yours,Michael MooreMMFlint@aol.comMichaelMoore.com

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks.

There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the W! hite House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW. Join Mike's Mailing List Join Mike's Facebook Group Become Mike's MySpace Friend