Jack:  Good evening my friends.

Jim:  Good evening Jack and we bid you welcome my friend in the love and light of Mother/Father God.

Jack:  Where do I begin?

Jim:  It’s been a long time since we have spoken. And this election is going to get wilder.

Jack:  Oh my friends you have no idea.  You have no idea. 

Jim:  I think we have gone from mavericks, to, I think we are all going to be riding mustangs. 

Jack:  We have gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Jim:  Yes.

Jack:  This political process has demonstrated everything that is wrong with the political process in this country in this day and age.  Just when I think things might be starting to turn a corner and then a little something comes through that just amazes me.  There is much manipulation that is taking place at this time on so many levels, in so many places and it just seems to get worse by the day.  Be that as it may, the American people are far more vested in this election than I can say any election in the last forty years and that is a good thing. 

Jim:  And it appears at this point in time that the apathy that we have spoken of in the last three and a half to four years has definitely come to a grinding halt. 

Jack:  As we spoke a couple of years ago my friend, it had been our hope in our discussions at that time that the people of this great land would awaken from that apathy without having to be hit over the head with things. But as we have seen it has taken so much more to bring them to a state of awareness.

Jim:  It is like going to Catholic school, a thump on the head once in a while keeps you awake.

Jack:  I think people are awake now.

Jim:  Yes.

Jack:  Whether it is the tycoons on Wall Street or the struggling home owners in the poorest neighborhoods of Detroit, there is little chance that people are not paying attention.  This current financial crisis will be an interesting turn of the tide, for it is not those in the middle class that are going to suffer the most if things continue at the rate that they are continuing.  The power brokers on Wall Street are about to fall from grace with a deafening thud.  The investigations are beginning, the betrayal is being illuminated, and American people are about to get a lesson in how to reclaim their way of life.  Again, it is not anyone’s choice that it should unfold this way. Like the child who is told “do not put your hand on the stove”, eventually someone feels they have to try it out.  This is what has been happening with the financial products that have been manufactured, packaged and sold on Wall Street.  There has been such manipulation, all for the sake of financial gain and it was nothing more, as we have discussed many times, than smoke in mirrors.  Unfortunately for them and fortunately for the American people so much smoke covered the mirrors that the entire situation imploded and now people are beginning to understand that they have been buying into nothing more than a myth for the last five years.  This has been a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul, if you will, for a long time. 

Jim:  Yes it was like a ponzi game.

Jack:  Exactly.  Even the illustrious Mr. Greenspan recognizes now that he put far too much faith in a system that had gone way far and away from the interests of the American people, in favor of rampant and grotesque greed. 

Jim:  Yes, there are people who say that he should have been raising the prime rate three years ago to bring this freewheeling credit type stuff to slow it down.

Jack:  Absolutely, but when all seemed to be going so beautifully for those who were making great profits on Wall Street, those power brokers refused the concept of slowing down what was taking place.  Even though all forms of economy would dictate that is precisely what should have taken place. Yet there was such concern about triggering a slight down turn in the markets that they were unwilling even for this short term to take a look at the bigger picture.  Even this young woman through whom I speak, two years ago commented that she could see the stock market was grotesquely super inflated.  Yet you are telling me that those on Wall Street didn’t know this.  Without being insulting to this kind woman she was, at that time, a trust officer with two months experience, a formal paralegal who knew nothing about financial markets and her own instinct told her that there was something amiss. 

LaTonya:  They had Chairman Greenspan and the chairman of the FCC, before congress. They were questioning those two and others and one of the representatives from the house made a similar statement. Questioning whether Greenspan and the chairman of the FCC should have seen the clear indicators of problems much earlier than now.

Jack:   And the unfortunate part for these individuals, who are men of great wisdom, was that they saw the warning signals. Yet they believed in the goodness and the ideology that had formed the basis of our society in all the years since the great depression that the financial markets would, in the end, police themselves.  We now know that this did not take place and we now, all of us, see the end result.

Jim:  The foxes have difficulty policing themselves. 

Jack:  Without question, and the lack of regulation toted by fiscal conservatives throughout this great country.  The lack of regulation is predicated upon people maintaining a certain level of integrity.  The true successful capitalistic society can not possibly survive for the long hall without safeguards, without regulation.  For greed is as insipid as any cancer, it sneaks into your being without you knowing it, without you even having a hint that that is what is taking place.  Each one of  you, if you were to walk up to one of your auto teller machines, and, oh I think those are such wonderful, wonderful things, I wish I had them back when I was on the earth plane, but if you were to walk up to that machine and insert you card, put in the correct numbers and ask for 20 dollars to come back to you and a 20 dollar bill came back and then another 20 and then another 20 and then another 20 would you be quick to walk away or would you stand there with your hand out and take it?  How many people in today’s society feeling that those in government really do not have their best interest at heart, feeling that they deserve more, would not just stand there and take all that was offered.  Couple this with the median age of those actively engaged in trading on Wall Street being of the generation of instant gratification.  We have just recently seen a number of financial institutions brought to their knees by the investment games being played by men and women in their early thirties, late twenties, the generation that believes that they are entitled to whatever it is that they can grab.  There is, and has been no, sense of integrity in the markets of this country for some time.  Just as there has been no sense, truly, of integrity in Washington for some time. There are many, trust my words when I tell you, there are many in Washington tonight who are gravely concerned about the potential for change that they see coming out of this upcoming election.  The old ways die very hard and there are many who do not want to see these changes take place. But who among you can truly say that this nation can survive business as usual for any longer. 

Jim:  There is no doubt; we can not survive. It’s going to implode.

Jack:  It already has imploded my friend.

Jim:  Yes.

Jack:  How many young families must lose their homes and their jobs as a result of unethical behavior before the rest of the people of this country stand up and say we’re not going to take any more.  I think, my friends, we are at that point.

Jim:  I definitely feel that there is going to be, there is a lot in Washington, not only politicians but lobbyist and everyone else who realize that the dodo has hit the fan so to speak and everything is going to change.

Jack:  Without question, without question.  You know on both sides of the political isle much has been said about the lobbying that takes place in Washington.  My friends, it is true that there is a positive place for lobbying in Washington.  The true measure of a lobbyist is supposed to be the individual who has chosen to speak on behalf of a group who seeks to educate those legislators that have been chosen by the American people on the needs of this country.  There are many lobbyists whose intentions have been good, yet like everything else it has been corrupted by those with their hands out saying, I’ll listen to you, what are you going to do for me. And there is the problem my friends.  It’s now become a game of who do you trust, who do you pay off, who can scratch your back the hardest and the longest; those days have to end.  Now Mr. McCain’s campaign is throwing around words like socialism when it comes to Mr. Obama’s platform for change. Indeed to some measure that is quite true but if something, my friends, does not bring the scale of justice back into balance in this country, this country has no future. It can not continue with the unregulated attempts at greed over the best interest of the people any longer.  The backs of the American people can no longer sustain the weight and unfortunately in order to make those changes we will have to step back from what started to be a very positive system in our capitalist economy.  Indeed to some degree the proposals of Mr. Obama do seem as if they have come from a place of socialist background. But it is not socialism my friends, it is balance. And that is what this country needs at this time and once the budgets are brought back into balance, once the deficit is reduced on the American people who are vested in the future of this nation, then those regulations and those freedoms can again be relaxed and hopefully going forward, the American people will not give into the greed that has led us to where we are today.  Hopefully the lesson will have been painful enough that we will learn.  Like we discussed the last time that we spoke, there is so much potential in this nation at this time for positive change, alternative energy forms are incredibly poised to bring this nation not only in the future for itself but for the world as a whole.  We can again become a nation that is respected around the world rather than hated.  We can again be that beacon that the American people have always sought to be, but it is necessary for a change to take place now. That will be a difficult pill for some to swallow, until we can bring things back into balance.  I apologize; I got on my soap box again.

Jim:  While you were talking, things were coming into my mind and I have four major points that I need to comment on. 

Jack:  Of course.

Jim:  First of all I get tired of hearing Mr. McCain talk about the American manufacturers pay 30% tax and if they go to Ireland they are only paying 11%, then I realize that we are the policemen of the world. How many aircraft carries, how many battleships does Ireland have that are floating around the world? Who pays for this protection of these people who pay 35% of importing stuff from China? That is the first point.  Second point is, what is 700 billions dollars but a socialist give away?  And the next point is Denmark.  I think Denmark is pretty much a socialist society and they don’t seem to have it that bad as far as I can see.  The forth point being, is the United States is not actually a true capitalist society.  Any comments on that.

LaTonya:  The tax rate may be 35% but by the time the corporations get done with the deductions and give a ways and things of that nature I don’t think they are paying anywhere near or close to 35% and that is just not discussed I don’t think. 

Jack:  My friend perhaps we should change chairs. 

Jim:  Some people say that I should run for office but they wouldn’t listen to me in Washington either. 

Jack:  The points you made are very good ones Jim without question and I think that they are articulating exactly the things that we have been discussing.  Absolutely, there is an old saying that becomes so true in any time of political campaign. And for those who are a little younger in the room you may not remember this saying, but I remember a saying that my father once shared with me about figures don’t lie but liars figure.

Jim:  Yes that is true.

Jack:  You can make numbers do whatever you want them to do. It all depends on how you want to shift the equation and how you want the answer to be portrayed.  Mr. McCain talks negatively about Mr. Obama’s proposed tax cuts for 95% of the American working class who is earning under a quarter of a million dollars a year.  And he says 40% of the American people who earn under 250 thousand dollars a year pay no taxes.  I believe if you look at Mr. Obama’s proposal, he is talking about, and I don’t think I have missed anything, 95% of tax payers, he is not talking about the people who don’t pay taxes, even though those people too would receive benefits. 

Jim:  Yes.  I think he has clarified that once.

Jack:  He has clarified it a couple of times but yet if you play with the numbers to an uneducated populace you can get them to question anything. 

Jim:  But as LaTonya said it is 35% but even if it was true; if every business company particularly the big ones truly paid 35% somebody has got to pay for the standing army, somebody has got to pay for the standing navy, but they pass this right back to the average Joe the plumber and Bob the builder and everyone else in between.  As a corporation yes, but it is handed back; it’s not something that disappears. 

Jack:  And again I will point out another example of Mr. McCain manipulation of the facts. He talks about how, I thought I would never hear myself say this, he talks about how Joe the plumber owns his business and makes more than $250 thousand a year.  For Joe the plumber to have income, net income of $250 thousand dollars after the cost of doing business, Joe the plumber has already paid himself a salary of well over $100 thousand a year, he has paid his employees well, he has paid, under Mr. Obama’s plans, for insurance coverage for his employees, he has given his employees credit for child care and other necessary things and he is taxed on his profits in his small business of over $250 thousand a year.  Now for a small business to have made $250 thousand in profit in one year’s time…

Jim:  He has got to be sweating a lot of pipes together.

Jack: …he’s making a lot of money my friends.  And yes indeed after all of the things that he has done, after all the benefits he as a tax paying citizen has already received is it not more in the interest of Joe the plumber and Joe the plumber’s family and Joe the plumber’s employees for Joe’s plumbing business to pay a slightly higher percentage of taxes so that all these things can take place for Joe and Joe’s employees.

Jim:  You are right.

Jack:  My friend there is nothing more to say.

Jim:  This is something that I am curious about. I would like to know how much he has been working this past week.  Or whether they are still staked out in his front yard and he is still milking this thing so to speak. 

Jack:  My only chagrin is that Mr. Obama, in the exhaustion of the campaign and the constant barrage of people speaking to him, did phrase things in a way that opened the door to this criticism.  If Mr. Obama had the time to truly answer Joe as we have just discussed, think how different the McCain campaign would look today. 

Jim:  That is true.  There is the pressure that both of them, not only Senator Obama but Senator McCain, and going one on one people throw this stuff at them and one thing
after another, they are going to make a slip of the tongue, they are going to word things differently.  Some may say you took it out of context, but it doesn’t sound like that to me because that is exactly the way you said it.  Now the interpretation can be different and as you said if he would have had time to sit down and draw it out on a piece of paper maybe Joe the plumber would have understood. Also, as what is going on right now with the NRC as far as Sarah’s clothing.  If she is going to try and relate with these people, Joe six pack / soccer moms, most don’t shop at Nieman Marcus.

Jack:  But at the same time Jim, look at my administration and my wife Jackie.

Jim:  But we are talking two different things.  Your family had money as Cindy McCain has money.  If she walks out with a $300 thousand outfit I don’t care if she has paid for it with her company’s funds. But when the national Republican Party walks in and dresses Sarah up to be a Barbie Doll, to be a representative of something else, they’re going to get it and they are getting it now.  Yes Cindy McCain dresses impeccably she can afford it, but then Cindy McCain is not up there trying to relate to be a soccer mom because she is a beer baron.

Jack:  I couldn’t agree more.

Jim:  I get frustrated. I am sorry.

Jack:  Well Jim you have a right to be frustrated, but again the costs of a campaign are a fluid expense that are all about appearances and whether any one of us would choose to agree with the budgets of either the Republican or the Democratic campaigns is questionable. The reality is these are not the issues that John McCain or Barack Obama should be discussing eleven days before one of the most important elections in the face of this nation’s history.

Jim:  I agree with you. Sadly that is not what 90% of the Americans are saying.

Jack:  90% of the Americans would agree with us Jim.  What this is, is a misguided attempt by the media to once again redirect the focus of the American people away from the issues. And I do hold the media largely accountable for the condition and the direction of these campaigns.  And so long as we live in society that has a 24 hour 7 day a week news cycle this will continue.  There is no way around it, so the American people will need to become a little more savvy at seeing through it and making their voices heard as to what they will and will not tolerate. 

Jim:  Yes.  Does anyone else have questions?

Phyllis:  I was just going to comment that I have not seen Entertainment Tonight for a long time and I happened to sit down and catch a little bit of it and it was almost the same as watching CNN. 

Jack:  Exactly.

Phyllis:  They turned this whole campaign into a Hollywood theatrical presentation and as much as I like CNN when I was looking at Entertainment Tonight it was almost like watching the same thing.

Jack:  Exactly.

Jim:  It sells newspapers and airtime. 

Jack:  Would you not prefer to turn on your local new station or your local TV station for the nightly news and hear about the platforms of the local races in your area… 

Phyllis:  At this point yes.

Jack: then how much money Sarah Palin spent on a pair of shoes or whether Barack Obama spent too much for lunch?  Would it not be more important to hear about who is running for congress, who is running for senate, who is running for Sheriff?  Are these not races that are more important than what is passing for news in each day’s new cycle?

Phyllis:  It is, except that unfortunately on a local level we don’t have anything as powerful as No Bias / No Bull or whatever that is because the only thing that I ever see or hear much of are just the ads and I have heard them and I have seen them but I don’t see too much of a round table discussion by any of the local candidates. I don’t hear from them, all I do is see the ads.  So I don’t know if they are talking, if they are gathering, if they are talking to people. I don’t know, but yes, that is what I would like to hear at this point, I am done with the national campaign.

Jack:  Well the only way that is going to change, Phyllis, is for people such as yourselves to contact the local stations and say you know what, we are tired of this, give us some information that we can use.  And with that my friends I know this is likely to be the last time that we speak before the election.

Jim:  We might have a chance to speak Sunday before the election but I am not sure we will get it posted. 

Jack:  In any event know that no matter how the election turns out, no matter how you are concerned whether your intentions will be felt because of the outdated Electoral College my friends, remember it is your duty to yourselves and this nation to cast your vote for whoever you choose to vote for.  Remember that you have no right to complain about the outcome if you have not made your voice heard.  You have no right to champion the cause of American freedom if you turn you back on the greatest freedom that you have in this nation and that freedom is the right to choose those who will govern you.  Express this to everyone you discuss the election with; remind them that no matter what they think, what they feel or who they are voting for it is their duty, it is their obligation to make their voices heard at the poles. And if I say nothing more from where I am to where you are that is the most important thing that I can share. 

Jim:  I agree with you 100% I think the Unites States is going to see the largest voting in the history of the country this time I truly do.  There are people who have sat on their hands 8, 10, 12, 14 years and finally have realized that the day of reckoning is here.

Jack:  Well my friends I will say good night.  Phyllis I hope your journeys are pleasant ones.

Phyllis:  Thank you.

Jack:  And I know that your foundation’s upcoming fundraising event this weekend will be successful and be a joyful time for all concerned.  Know that I wish you all well in the days to come between now and the election.  It will be an interesting ride, pay attention you will learn something.

Jim:  Yes.

Jack:  Good night my friends.

Jim:  Good night and wherever you go we know the blessings of Mother/Father God journey with you. 

Jack:  Thank you my friend.

Jim:  Thank you.