Have you read about the study done by two political scientists that showed that conservatives presented with a lie and then a refutation, ended up believing the lie MORE than conservatives never presented with the refutation. In other words, a lie affects both liberals and conservatives but a refutation only changes the mind of liberals. Conservatives believe the lie even more strongly if it is refuted. So refuting the lies about Obama won’t have any effect on Conservatives. Just the opposite. (I have no doubt that Rove and his minions know this and make use of it. That is why lies are such an important part of their campaign. )

Then how to you reach such people? Not through logic. You reach them through emotions.

That is why Palin was chosen. Palin’s emotional message is: I’m like you so if I am in a leadership position I’ll do things that would help people like me, i.e., YOU.

Blacks clearly feel that Obama would help them but he has been less successful in making working class whites or women feel he cares about them.

The Obama Campaign can’t do that with a logical message or carefully thought out programs. They have to find some way of reaching people emotionally.

Obama has all but repudiated his white heritage. He needs to stop that and start appearing with white relatives. They need to appear to be close. To convince the American people that his race doesn’t matter he needs to act like it doesn’t matter to him and doesn’t matter to his family, white and black. He needs to have a blended family, not of one race or another. He has white relatives, why aren’t they with him all the time? Why aren’t they on stage? Why isn’t his white grandmother with him A LOT? Is she too ill? Why isn’t his sister with him? Doesn’t he have any presentable white cousins?

Bill Clinton was always good about showing off his poor relatives and calling attention to a background not too different than most people’s. Let’s see a film of Obama’s adolescence along with friends of different races. If he has any.

Logic is not going to determine the outcome of this election. Emotion will.

© alllie 2008

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Once upon a time Nobel Prize-winning ethologist Konrad Lorenz had a jackdaw colony. One morning he noticed the alpha male allowed a low ranking female to force him from a feeding tray. It turned out that a wandering male had returned to the colony, defeated the previous alpha and his mate, and had bonded with the female, thus she became part of the alpha pair and had higher status than the previous alpha male. The entire colony knew and acted accordingly.

It has been theorized that the surest evolutionary path to intelligence is living in a social group and having to keep track of social relationships. Like jackdaws we are social animals and like them we have to keep track of such relationships. This makes us especially interested in gossip.

How is that related to politics? Well, if someone is interesting, that makes them easier to remember. Palin is interesting. She reminds me of Neocon French President Sarkozy and his wild personal life with his wife’s naked pictures appearing on the internet and his previous wife describing him as a “skinflint lothario who parties all night with women whose name he doesn’t remember” and his previous relationships which included the daughter of former French President Chiracs, a relationship, which some claim, led to her husband’s suicide.

It has been claimed that Sarkozy has used the drama of his personal life to distract the French people from governmental actions that have caused them harm. In just such a way Palin’s bizarre personal life is being used to distract the American people from Republicans policies that have and will harm them.

“Bread and circuses” (from Latin: panem et circenses) is an ancient Roman metaphor for people choosing food and fun over freedom. As people have become more immune to the entertainment media, some leaders have begin to act as the circus part of that equation. Palin is just such a clown, an interesting clown who distracts the public from what really matters.

There’s a picture of Palin in a bikini with a gun. It doesn’t matter that it was photoshoped. There’s a picture of her in a micro-mini and an open satin blouse. It doesn’t matter that it was photoshoped. They use sexy models to sell cars and razors and a thousand other things even though the models have nothing to do with the product they are being used to sell. Just the image of the sexy woman makes many men, maybe almost all men, want to buy what is being sold. It doesn’t matter what Palin is selling. Some men will buy. The bikini, the gun, Palin’s face. It’s an ad campaign. It’s a lie like all ad campaigns. That doesn’t stop it from working.

She’s a way to distract the American people from what really matters. An effective way. Remember she is just a weather girl/clown there to distract us. STOP paying attention to her.

I was recently reading a forum that asked: If you were to send one email to convince your republican family or friends to vote for Obama, which clip, site, or text would you include?

I decided that what I would send would be a collage. On one side would be pictures (or videos) of war and death and houses for sale, of people being tortured, people on the roofs after Katrina, people crying and dying, wolves being killed from helicopters (the one concession to Palin), starving polar bears, and over that, McCain and Bush embracing. Then on the other side I would have Obama pushing those images back with all kinds of people helping him. The picture would have to make clear that the people were helping, not pushing him. Behind him would be smiling children and happy kids in graduating gowns and a nice nature scene. We need to remind the American people of the last eight years and not get bogged down in anything else.

Remind the American people that there are two possible futures for our nation and ask them to help us achieve the one we deserve.

Obama needs to run against George Bush. Not Sarah Palin. Not even John McCain. It is Bush and his policies that are our enemies.

PS. Have you noticed that 90% of the time on the news channels when they have someone supporting Obama it’s almost always someone black? Isn’t that code trying to convince the American people subliminally that only blacks support Obama, that he’s not one of us and isn’t concerned with the same things we are?

© alllie 2008

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When Kerry was running for president in 2004 and I first saw his wife, Theresa Heinz, on TV, I had a failure of imagination. As I watched her and her children, radiating privilege, I couldn’t image her as first lady. Despite that I held my nose and voted for Kerry but I was not surprised when the election was stolen and he did nothing to try to fight that theft.

Watching Michelle Obama I have a similar failure. I find her to be a very cold and bitter person – like Hillary Clinton’s opponents say they find her. Now I think Hillary is fine, a nice enough person, nice enough for me to vote for anyway. Whatever her opponents see in her, I don’t see. But I do see it in Michelle. She seems a nasty person. She is supposed to be intelligent, though not that intelligent if she allowed herself to say in public, during an election campaign with cameras running, that until now she had never before been proud of America. (Does your husband have to be almost nominated for president for you to be proud? Nothing else does it? Just massive validation?) Then I think of Rev. Wright and wonder if the choice of church and minister was not Barack’s but Michelle’s. Rev Wright seems to be the same kind of person as she is.

When I see Michelle’s thin, pinched and bitter face, I have a failure of imagination. I cannot imagine her as first lady. Most professional politicians have something lovable about them. Generally their wives do too. Obama is clearly able to make a lot of people love him but I think the lovable gene skipped Michelle. If Barak is elected he will be well advised to try to keep her in the background, away from TV cameras and microphones. But I cannot imagine Michelle will allow that. I see a strain of Rev. Wright’s narcissism in her.

Michelle is also openly racist, thinking the black community is unique and special (the essence of racism), swearing her allegiance to them, first and foremost, and not to the American people. She is even troubled by integration. I think of all the people, black and white, who fought and suffered to unite our nation and end segregation. Michelle seems to reject it and them. She said, in her thesis:

Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost.

Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a “consciousness” shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country’s history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many “integrated Blacks” have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture–the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration. http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=1057

The plutocracy has told us the primary is OVER. They have forced Obama down our throats leaving us two very bad choices. Let’s see which part of the plutocracy gets its way: The fossil fuel kings represented by McCain or the Trilateral Commission/Globalists represented by Obama. Too bad the American people don’t have a horse in this race.

© alllie 2008

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How do you get a real estate bubble? A real estate bubble is a type of inflation that is largely limited to real estate. Why would just real estate prices inflate more than other products and equities?

Residential real estate is sensitive to interest rates as very few things are. When most people buy a house the primary factor that determines how much they are willing to pay is not the price of the house but the size of the monthly house payment. If they think they can only afford to pay $1000 a month, that will limit how much the house they buy can cost. Their monthly note will include escrow payments for city and county property taxes as well as their homeowner’s insurance but even those are determined by the value of the house.

In 2000 the mortgage interest rate was about 8%. If you bought a $100,000 house that year, the monthly payment on the loan would have been $733/month. Even with property taxes and insurance your monthly house note would probably have been under $1000. The lender expected that you would be able to pay that $1000 a month and pay it for 30 years. They made the loan based on that expectation. They made it after checking your income, loans and credit score.

After 9/11 the prime interest rate was cut and cut again, 5.6% to 1.75%. This was meant to keep the stock market up, another kind of bubble, and it did. The lower the interest rate, the less investors make on bonds and the more they are forced to go into the stock market to get a higher rate of return. To keep the market up the interest rate was cut so much that it was less than the inflation rate, so that it was effectively zero.

What does this do to house prices? After 9/11 the mortgage rate fell, first to 7% in 2002, then in 2003, to support the economy during Bush’s invasion of Iraq, to 5%. At 5% your house note, including escrow, on a $100,000 house would have been about $750/month, a reduction of about 25% from 2000.

Since you thought you could afford a larger house note, what would you do? Most people would buy a more expensive house. The developers and realtors knew this as well so they began to build and sell more expensive houses or just sell existing houses for a higher price. After all, you wouldn’t be paying any more a month. That is how this bubble grew. The price of houses begins to inflate (up to whatever the market would bear) with the price being limited not by what the house was really worth but by the interest rate the buyer had to pay. The more the fed drove down interest rates, the more the prices of houses inflated. A bubble was produced.

When the fed began to increase the interest rate again, largely because people would no longer buy US debt at such low rates, house notes went up as well, especially on variable rate mortgages that people had been tricked into getting. People found they couldn’t afford to buy because the higher interest rates and inflated house prices produced a house note too high to pay. So the real estate market tanked.

But there was something else going on. Something caused by predatory lenders.

With the passing years most houses increase in value but with the real estate bubble they REALLY increased in value. A house that was purchased for $50,000 30 years ago, might be worth $200,000 or more now. A house in a modest (read poor) neighborhood that was purchased for $30,000 might be worth $100,000-150,000. This provided an opportunity for predatory lenders.

The person who bought that $30,000 house might still have a modest income and not be able to pay the note on $150,000 loan but he/she still was sitting on the equity in that house, equity that the predators thought they could get. Lenders made a push to get people to refinance that equity, to get some of the money without realizing they might lose their house. Say that house they paid $50,000 for, or were still paying $50,000 for for, was technically worth $150,000. Say the owner is paying a $500 a month house note. If he is lured into refinancing that house, and borrowing say, $100,000, that is still less than the $150,000 his house was worth. The owner gets $100,000 cash and thinks he is doing good. But he has to pay various fees to the lender and also has a much larger house note.

Time goes by and the borrower can’t pay that note so the lender gets to take the house and sell it. With each transaction, with the loan, with the default, with selling the house out from under the borrower, with each transaction the lender gets a bunch of fees and, as long as they can sell the house to some new dupe, will not lose a dime. In a few states, such as Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, that have “strict foreclosure” the lender gets outright ownership of the house with no obligation to sell it and return any excess to the original owner. So it’s all profit for them.

Then the predatory lenders figured out a new way to make a killing. They bundled their risky loans (called subprime loans) together and sold them in Europe. Then it didn’t matter if people could pay because the lenders already gotten full value and more out of their risky loans.

Also predatory credit card companies, especially out of Delaware (Delaware has made corporate corruption the primary state business. Delaware: The Black Hole of Corporate Reform This is why I don’t trust Biden.), are pushing the holders of their credit cards to borrow cash, to max out the credit cards with cash advances, cash advances that can end up charging as much as 32% (Chase) interest plus a 3% or more initial transaction fee.

One of the credit card solicitations I got in the mail revealed, in tiny print on the back, that if the borrower was late or missed a payment twice in a year that the interest rate on the balance could be increased up to 72%. (No usury laws in Delaware since the people gulled by Delaware businesses are not even citizens of Delware so they can’t exert pressure on Delaware’s elected representatives to change the laws. Delaware is like a judicial “Hole-in-the-wall,” a safe refuge for thieves. Or like a “Black-Hole-of-Corporate-Reform-in-the-Wall. ) These credit card companies try to ensure this happens by varying the due date from month to month. Think you have to have your payment in by the 30th? Then the next moth you don’t look and it turns out it was due on the 25th. ”Many credit card agreements are now written so the company can raise your rate if you are late on any of your bills, not just their credit card.” !!! Such credit cards often result in people ruining their credit or going into bankruptcy. You would almost expect Vinnie to show up with a baseball bat and threaten your knees.

Under the old bankruptcy laws the lender couldn’t take a person’s house. Under the new Republican passed bankruptcy laws, now they can. The credit card companies seem to be deliberately driving people into bankruptcy. On purpose. So they can charge ridiculous interest rates. So they can charge more fees for stealing their homes.

This kind of predatory lending went on for a while. Some people tried to get laws passed to stop it but the Republicans and the wealthy prevented that. People were lured into refinancing their houses, were persuaded to take the equity out of them, and were lent more money than they could ever pay back. Some lenders did not even ask what income the person had, only if they owned their house. They wanted the borrower to default so they could take the house and sell it and take huge fees out of the price. Every time they do anything, they get additional fees. Often ridiculously large fees.

But then the bubble burst. They finally killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Houses had gone up so much that when interests rates began to rise as well fewer people could buy the stolen houses when they were put on the market. This produced the subprime mortgage crisis. Some European banks that had bought the bundled subprime loans went bust. Others declared hundred of millions in losses. God knows how many people have lost or will lose their homes.

Bush and the fed are doing everything they can to protect these predatory lenders, spending our tax money, inflating our money till it is worth less and less, doing everything they can to prop up the stock market but nothing to help people who have lost their homes.

Maybe bankers are as evil as the commies used to claim. Maybe usury should still be a crime.

© alllie 2007

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The Republicans are skilled at framing debates, at defining the terms even Democrats use. Rove is a genius at it. He used to send out daily talking points for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. When he resigned from the White House I expected him to stop. Maybe he has. Maybe someone else has taken over that task but I think I he’s still doing it – but from another address.

The new Republican word is “honor.” It seems a strange choice since lies and perversions are the hallmark of the Republican Party. Still, the Republican candidates and the right wing echo chambers on Fox and talk radio are using the word a lot, trying to catapult the propaganda. On September 10 Stephen Colbert showed a video montage of Republican candidates repeating the word like a mantra. Like it meant something to them.

But what is “honor” to a Republican?

Honor can refer to many things. When I think of honor I think “virtue, integrity and a keen sense of ethical conduct: integrity or one’s word given as a guarantee of performance ”. This cannot be what Republicans are talking about. They have no integrity and their word means nothing. They are all forsworn. Forsworn means “to make a liar of oneself under or as if under oath”. If you break your oath you are forsworn. If you never meant to keep it in the first place, you are forsworn. The Republicans have all sworn to defend and protect the constitution, even Bush. (“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”) Despite this he calls the constitution “just a goddamn piece of paper.” He has undermined the constitution with almost every action. He is forsworn. By their actions most Republicans have shown themselves foresworn as well. They have made no effort to defend the constitution. Their oaths mean nothing to them. They are without honor.

Honor can also refer to the respect and admiration we feel toward those with integrity and strict ethical conduct. Again this could not be what the Republicans are talking about since they seem only to admire individuals with money and power. They show contempt for individuals of integrity. Again and again Bush has appointed corrupt cronies to public office, not honorable men and women. Bush and the Republicans show contempt for anyone too stupid to sell out.

Now they talk about honor. Well, they don’t really talk about it as much as they just utter the word repeately. It’s their new catchword.

When Republicans speak of “honor” they don’t mean integrity, they don’t mean any character trait. Since they don’t mean living up to their oaths either, what do they mean by “honor”?

They mean something external. They mean recognition and privilege. When Bush gave former CIA director George Tenent the Medal of Freedom after firing him, he was giving him an honor in the sense of an evidence or symbol of distinction, as an exalted title or rank, a badge or decoration or a ceremonial rite or observance. Tenent got a medal and the ceremonial rite in the White House, but not for his integrity and ethics. But for his lack of them.

The Bush Administration’s actions in Iraq, from kidnapping and torture to funding death squads, have been without honor. Yet now they claim we cannot leave Iraq with honor. They are right. If you don’t bring honor with you, you cannot take it with you when you leave. They have dishonored our nation, our soldiers and our constitution. They have brought only shame to them all. For them honor is just a word they use to obscure the fact that they have none. Honor is in their mouths but not their actions.

© alllie 2007

Distribution: This article is copyrighted by alllie, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, or web media so long as you tell me where and this credit is attached as well as a link back to this page, http://www.alllie.com/alllieblog/.