“The reason people are poor in America is not because they lack money, it’s because poor people in America lack values, character, and the ability to work hard. And it’s got nothing to do with race, it has everything to do with color”

From the October 28 broadcast of Clear Channel’s The Big Show with Bill Cunningham

Nice, isn’t it? A so-called “Christian” I know once told me in all seriousness that lacking any other way to measure it, you can measure a person’s goodness by how much money they have or make.

Barack Obama attracted 100,000 people at a Saturday rally here, his biggest crowd ever at a U.S. event.

The crowd assembled under the Gateway Arch on a sunny Saturday afternoon to hear Obama speak about taxes and slam the Republicans on economic issues.

Lt. Samuel Dotson of the St. Louis Police Department confirmed the number of attendees piled into the grassy lawn by the Mississippi River.

To be sure, big crowds don’t always signal a big turnout on Election Day. But Obama’s ability to draw his largest audience yet in a typically red state that just weeks ago looked out of reach, could signal a changing electoral map.

For months Missouri polls put Obama as much as ten percentage points behind Republican John McCain. It was widely believed that McCain’s pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate would have won over the state’s conservatives and boosted his chances there. So far, that hasn’t happened.

A Rasmussen poll released on Friday shows Obama leading in Missouri 52% to 46% for McCain.

The following from SBE Council (a nonprofit, nonpartisan small business advocacy organization).

I support Obama’s healthcare plan in general, but I do agree with SBE that this needs to be addressed specifically.

On Small Biz “Exemption” in Obama’s Health Plan
October 8, 2008
Business News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       

On Obama’s Health Plan, Questions Still Remain for Small Business ?…new “exemption” and “meaningful share” need to be defined

Washington, D.C. – Presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama talked about their health care proposals in the debate last evening. According to the nation’s leading nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to enabling small business growth and entrepreneurship, the new small business exemption now included in the Obama health care plan is certainly interesting, but requires clarification. In addition, the details on how small firms can qualify for the tax credit still require more information. After all, there are strings attached to the tax credit, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council).

“While it appears that Senator Obama has included a new ‘exemption’ for small businesses in his health care plan with respect to the ‘play or pay’ component, we have questions about what type or size business will be exempted. In addition, it would be nice to have details regarding Senator Obama’s definition of a ‘quality health plan’ and what he regards as a ‘meaningful share’ of costs that employers must cover in order to qualify for the tax credit he proposes,” said SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan.

According to SBE Council, the “exemption” is a relatively new addition to the plan as the group has carefully read and followed both candidates’ plans on a range of issues impacting small business. In a Q&A feature of Barack Obama’s health care plan on the campaign website, it reads: “Employers who do not offer meaningful coverage to their employees will have to contribute a percentage of their payroll to help offset the cost of providing coverage to all Americans.” It adds, “Some small employers will be exempt from this requirement.”
Kerrigan said that Senator Obama needs to define what types or sizes of small businesses will be exempt from the payroll tax penalty if they do not provide health coverage.

The central feature of Senator Obama’s health care proposal for small businesses is the refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by the firm. In order to receive the credit, however, “small businesses will have to offer a quality health plan to all of their employees and cover a meaningful share of the cost of employee health premiums,” according to the plan.

Kerrigan commented: “For many small businesses, high costs remain an issue. If, by definition, a quality plan means expensive gold-plated coverage, the tax credit may not help all that much.”

SBE Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan small business advocacy organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship. For addition information, please visit http://www.sbecouncil.org/.

Today I posted a selection of photos from our balloon ride this past weekend. We flew over St. Charles county with the good people from Balloons Over St. Louis. Take-off was around 7:00 AM, just after sunrise; it was a beautiful although somewhat foggy morning. It was a great time, and I’d recommend it for anyone.

Check out the photos page to see the new album,

“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me. I’m disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues.”

– Former Republican Governor of Michigan William Milliken

“Look it. This doesn’t befit the office that she’s running for. And frankly, people don’t like it.”

– Veteran Republican Congressman Ray LaHood

“People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Senator Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Senator McCain,” Weaver said. “And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive.”

– John Weaver, John McCain’s former top strategist

“John McCain has shown a stunning failure of leadership. His campaign, in a time of economic crisis and foreign policy drift, has degenerated into a negative and nasty campaign of smears.
The reports are piling up of ugliness at the campaign rallies of John McCain and Sarah Palin. Audience members hurl insults and racial epithets, call out “Kill Him!” and “Off With His Head,” and yell “treason” when Senator Obama’s name is mentioned. I strongly condemn language like this which can only be described as hate-filled.
According to reports, every ad paid for by the John McCain campaign is now a negative ad — every single one! McCain allows his running mate to make outrageous charges that only a few years ago would have disqualified someone from serious consideration for national office.
We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to fight back, spread the word about what kind of low campaign he’s running, and make sure people know the truth.“

– US Senator John Kerry

10 points for Catholic citizens to remember

Point #8
So can a Catholic in good conscience support a “pro-choice” candidate?
The answer is: I can’t and I won’t. But I do know some serious Catholics — people whom I admire — who will. I think their reasoning is mistaken. But at the very least they do sincerely struggle with the abortion issue, and it causes them real pain. And even more importantly: They don’t keep quiet about it; they don’t give up their efforts to end permissive abortion; they keep lobbying their party and their elected representatives to change their pro-abortion views and protect the unborn. Catholics can support “pro-choice” candidates if they support them despite — not because of — their “pro-choice” views. But they also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it.

Point #9
What is a “proportionate” reason when it comes to the abortion issue?
It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life — which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.

Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver
Archbishop’s Column, Week of January 16, 2008, Denver Catholic Register
http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=454&s=2&a=9553

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is probably the “authority” on the subject, has made the following statement, which does not really differ from Chaput’s view:

“A Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who takes a position in favor of an intrinsic evil, such as abortion or racism, if the voters intent is to support that position. In such cases a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil. At the same time, a voter should not use a candidates opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity.”

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/FCStatement.pdf

My take on this:

These statements are instructive, because they tell us that while it would be wrong to support a candidate because he or she is pro-choice, it is acceptable to support a candidate despite being pro-choice, as long as your conscience tells you that the candidates views on other moral issues are just as important. The bishops tell us that to support a pro-life candidate only for that stance, if that candidate fails to address other critical moral issues, would also be wrong.

So, in other words the “single issue” approach to voting that revolves around “choice” or “life” is not valid. By the way, I’m not Catholic, but I’m married to one and many of the people I know are. I hope that Catholics, and Christians of all denominations, will come to realize that issues such as health care, poverty, justice, environmental stewardship, war and the death penalty are just as important as that other issue. We have to consider our moral obligations to those of us who have actually been born, as well as the unborn.

Washington Post, Saturday Morning:

Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations, several top Republicans said.

“We’re going to get a little tougher,” a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. “We’ve got to question this guy’s associations. Very soon. There’s no question that we have to change the subject here”

MSNBC, Saturday Afternoon:

At a fundraiser in Denver today, Palin attacked Obama in some of her harshest comments since being selected as McCain’s running mate – bringing up Obama’s tenuous ties to ’60s radical William Ayers.

Clearly John McCain is desperate. With this latest dishonorable smear campaign, any respect I had for him is now gone.