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Sat 10/4/08 I just came home from 2 1/2 hours of door knocking for the Mark Hass for State Senate campaign. Met a lot of nice people in Aloha, and one major.... old grouch who insulted me. Fine. It must really suck to be him. The next person was awesome!
So I finish my list, install a few lawn signs and head home. As I'm literally serving myself some lunch, my cell rings and I hear a familiar voice "Hi, I'm Rainie from the Jeff Merkley campaign" and I think this can't be OUR Rainie, she hates to phone bank. But it was Rainie, and she was indeed calling folks on the phone. Turns out the phone list was jumbled (she thought I was someone else) but we get to talking and she tells me that Jeff's campaign is doing well, Jeff is a little bit in front of Smith, but they really Really REALLY need folks to canvass and call voters. So I'm a sucker for a good cause and agree to do some phone calling over the next few weeks (in addition to canvassing for Mark and other stuff.) Because I really Really REALLY don't want to see Gordon Smith spend another SIX YEARS in the US Senate cancelling nearly every vote that Ron Wyden makes, and I really Really REALLY want to see Jeff Merkley go to DC to represent us.
Now I challenge YOU, my dear friends and fellow Democrats, to step up and add one more job to your already frantic, hectic, busy lives, and call the Campaign For Change Office in Beaverton and volunteer to spend a few hours, one or two days and/or evenings a week until the election, working to get Jeff elected to the US Senate. Make calls from the Merkley office or from home, walk the neighborhoods and meet voters, wear a Merkley button or shirt everywhere and engage people about real change.
Just for a few more weeks. It's really Really REALLY critical we win this one. President Obama needs a filibuster-proof-Senate, and Jeff Merkley needs YOU to help him get there.
When we win in November, you'll be able to say "I really wanted this and I helped make it happen!" And that will feel really Really REALLY good!

Jeff Merkley for US Senate, Beaverton Office
14025 SW Farmington Rd
Beaverton, OR 97005
Phone: 503-619-7583
campaign@jeffmerkley.com

While a little biased (it is the Huffington Post) this explains the current situation - and how we got here - very well.

Excerpt from the Huffington Post, by Hale "Bonddad" Stewart, October 2, 2008

As far as I have seen, no one has offered any solution to the credit crunch that makes any sense. Frankly, I am beginning to think there is no palatable solution.

First -- let's see what the basic problem is. US banks (and every other bank out there) use a fractional reserve system:

Fractional-reserve banking is the banking practice in which banks are required to keep only a fraction of their deposits in reserve with the choice of lending out the remainder while maintaining the obligation to redeem all deposits upon demand. This practice is universal in modern banking

.....

A demand deposit at a bank (e.g. checking account) or banknote issued by a bank (bank-issued paper money) is essentially a loan to the bank, repayable on demand, which the bank uses to finance its investments in loans and interest bearing securities. The nature of fractional-reserve banking is that there is only a fraction of cash reserves available at the bank needed to repay all of the demand deposits and banknotes issued. The reason people deposit funds at a bank or hold banknotes issued by a bank is to store savings in the form of a demand claim on the bank. One important aspect of fractional-reserve banking is that the note holders and depositors still have a claim to repayment of their funds on demand even though the funds are already largely invested by the bank in interest bearing loans and securities

So, the short version is the bank takes deposits and either makes loans or buys other higher-yielding assets. Either way, the bank makes money on the "spread" or the difference between the rate of interest they pay on deposits and the rate of interest they get on their long-term loans or investments.

It just keeps getting better and better. Read this excerpt from Forbes.com:

The Paulson Plan
Bad News For The Bailout
9/23/08

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill seem determined to work together to pass a bill that will get the credit markets churning again. But will they do it this week, as some had hoped just a few days ago? Don't count on it.

"Do I expect to pass something this week?" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., mused to reporters Tuesday. "I expect to pass something as soon as we can. I think it's important that we get it done right, not get it done fast."

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, says his office has gotten "close to zero" calls in support of the $700 billion plan proposed by the administration. He doubts it'll happen immediately either. "I don't think it has to be a week" he says. "If we do it right, then we need to take as long as it needs."

The more Congress examines the Bush administration's bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation or else risk financial meltdown.

"The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable," says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

Click Read More to see the rest of this story

From The Huffington Post (Blog entry abridged. Click on link below for full story.)

Which nominee for President of the United States is homophobic and has a gay chief of staff at his Senate office in Washington, DC?

A. John McCain
B. Barack Obama

If you guessed "B," you're in the wrong spot. You belong here. If you guessed "A," congratulations, you passed with flying colors.

Mark Buse is not just a Chief of Staff for a homophobic United States Senator, but he is helping that Senator get elected to the White House.

While McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, he supports amending state constitutions defining marriage as between a man and a woman. McCain knows our country needs everyone who wants to serve in the military and he knows that DADT is wrong, yet he swings to the right on repealing it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rogers/john-mccains-chief-of-sta_b...

10. Take your birth control
  9. Teach your kids evolution
  8. Ask her how she found the time to do a skit on Saturday Night Live
  7. Buy a Hybrid
  6. Suggest raising taxes on gun sales
  5. Let your kid dress up as "Dumbledore" for Halloween
  4. Ban maybelline at hockey games
  3. Let women take questions from the press
  2. Build a wind farm that blocks her view of Russia

  And the #1 Way to piss off Sarah Palin is....

   1. Elect pro-chioce candidates up and down the ticket!

  (Lifted from an email from Planned Parenthood)

Election 2008 Phone Banks for BM 60 and 58

Election 2008 phone banks are volunteer/ OEA member activities. Please call your OEA UniServ Council office to volunteer! The phone calls can be made from home, either individually or at a cell phone party. For more information on Election 2008 go to www.oregoned.org or www.defendoregon.org. Please click here for information about ballot measures 58 and 60.

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Video from Leadership and Compassion Forum, hosted by Rick Warren at Saddleback Church on Saturday, August 16, featuring both John McCain and Barack Obama answering questions from Pastor Rick Warren.+

Includes complete video (in 11 parts, 6 for Barack Obama, 5 for John McCain), full transcript, and side-by-side comparison of the candidates’ answers.

http://trevinwax.com/2008/08/17/obama-mccain-with-rick-warren-at-saddleb...

Oregon Legislative Archived Audio 1999-present

http://www.leg.state.or.us/listn/

Web Audio files:
Audio files of legislative proceedings contained on this website are in Real Media (.rm) format. These files are not downloadable, but may be played using RealPlayer®.

The op ed says it all:

From the New York Times, Opinion, Friday, Sept 19, 2008

Blocking Care for Women

By Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democratic senator from New York,
and Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America

LAST month, the Bush administration launched the latest salvo in its eight-year campaign to undermine women's rights and women's health by placing ideology ahead of science: a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would govern family planning. It would require that any health care entity that receives federal financing — whether it's a physician in private practice, a hospital or a state government — certify in writing that none of its employees are required to assist in any way with medical services they find objectionable.

Laws that have been on the books for some 30 years already allow doctors to refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further, ensuring that all employees and volunteers for health care entities can refuse to aid in providing any treatment they object to, which could include not only abortion and sterilization but also contraception.

Health and Human Services estimates that the rule, which would affect nearly 600,000 hospitals, clinics and other health care providers, would cost $44.5 million a year to administer. Astonishingly, the department does not even address the real cost to patients who might be refused access to these critical services. Women patients, who look to their health care providers as an unbiased source of medical information, might not even know they were being deprived of advice about their options or denied access to care.