charitable donations by rich folks not tax deductable

in barack obama’s new tax the rich budget, rich folks (which for some inexplicable reason is attached to couples who make over 250K and individuals who make over 200K), will no longer be able to write off their charitable donations. well, we all know that joe biden gave about 1% of his salary to charity in 2007. so this sort of all ads up.

obama and biden say spread the wealth but only not from their pockets

joe, gaffe machine, biden gave about 1% of his earnings to charity last year. while barack obama has an aunt, who is written about extensively in his book living in the projects in south boston.

joe biden gaffe in new mccain ad

joe biden, aka ‘gaffe machine‘ went on the record last week saying ‘mark my words, obama will be tested by an international incident sometime within the first 6 weeks of his presidency.’ or something like that. that blurb has just made it into a new mccain ad:

nancy pelosi voted for bank deregulation

nancy pelosi took the time to bash george w. bush prior to the vote on the $700B wall street bailout plan that was before the u.s. house of representatives today. in the video linked to above, she rails against ‘no regulation, no supervision, no discipline,’ presumably of the u.s. banking system and not the iraq war.

but the reality is this, nancy pelosi voted to repeal the glass-steagall act in 1999, which regulated the u.s. banking system as a response to the financial fallout of the great depression. glass-steagall stood the country in good stead for over 70 years.

the move toward bank deregulation and less supervision in the 1990s is believed by many to be at the heart of this global financial crisis. pelosi’s beloved bill clinton, whom she praised in her ill-timed speech, signed the damn thing. click here to see how pelosi voted on the financial modernization act which is described in the summary of the bill as: ‘an act to enhance competition in the financial services industry by providing a prudential framework for the affiliation of banks, securities firms, and other financial service providers, and for other purposes.’ written by republican phil gramm, the bill got a lot of yeas. only a handful of democratic senators voted against it, including california’s barbara boxer and only one republican senator voted against it. while john mccain didn’t vote. joe biden voted yes. barack obama had the fortune of being in the illinois state senate at the time.

u.s. financial meltdown clinton greenspan

at the moment loads of people are fingering alan greenspan. but a lot of the press has failed to point the finger at the 1999 repeal of the glass-steagal act. according to pbs “in 1933, senator carter glass (D-Va.) and congressman he enry steagall (D-Ala.) introduce the historic legislation that bears their name, seeking to limit the conflicts of interest created when commercial banks are permitted to underwrite stocks or bonds.” it stood in good stead (albeit with a bit of tinkering) for 75 years until congress and bill clinton repealed it in 1999 following hundreds of millions of dollars worth of lobbying efforts by banks. under the gise of making the u.s. banking industry more competitive, the financial services modernization act passed by an overwhelmingly majority in congress and was signed by bill clinton.

joe biden voted yes and john mccain did not vote. barack obama was somewhere in illinois. house speaker nancy pelosi voted to repeal glass-steagal as well.

but the sponsor of the bill, phil gramm was advising john mccain at some point during his campaign.

joe biden asks man in wheelchair to stand up

joe biden is not an unlikeable person. 95% of what he says is insightful. the problem is with the other 5%. which is why he’s known as joe biden gaffe machine: