Truthful Politics

According to the 2008 Census, Alamance County in North Carolina has a population of 112,816 that are over 18. The Alamance County Election Statistics for the same year lists the number of registered Democrats at 41,421, Republicans 30,530, and 18,252 people are listed as Unaffiliated or Libertarian. That means that 22,613 people of the county population are either non-registered voters or not a citizen of the US. This shows that our political parties need to get active and start recruiting volunteers to go out and get more of their citizens registered to vote.

One way this is accomplished is by getting precincts in the county organized. This is accomplished by having the Precinct Chair, Vice and Secretary more active in their polling area and in organizing volunteers. Alamance County Democrats are having precinct meetings from February 27th through March 12, 2010.

Cathy von Hassel-Davies, Precinct Chair for the North Newlin District of Alamance County held her first precinct meeting on March 1st. She hopes to get more Democrats active in her precinct and to build a strong volunteer base. She was very active in the 2008 primary elections and noticed that her precinct areas voting list was very out-dated. This prompted her to get involved in her local precinct so that she can help clean up the voter database. This will also help volunteers who are giving of their valuable time to not waste it by going to homes that are abandoned, not there, or the occupant has moved.

There are 972 registered democrats in the precinct and there was about a 10% showing for the first precinct meeting of the year. This is a good way of becoming familiar with the people who are running in the local elections and to speak with these local politicians and finding out what their issues are. Jeremy Teetor, running for a two-year term of County Commissioner, Brad Allen running for District 15A District Court Judge, Ron Parrish who will be running for Alamance County Sheriff, James "Hunt" Johnson running for County Clerk were all in attendance. Unfortunately Pat Nadolski could not make it but he sent a representative who spoke for him at the meeting. Each one held our attention at they each spoke for about 10 minutes explaining their agenda and their hopes for the future of Alamance County.

If you want to be part of this mass organization of local Democrats in your area please check out the NC Democratic website and get in touch with one of your local representatives.

Democrats and Republicans are getting together for their annual precinct meetings throughout North Carolina.

Alamance County Democrat precinct meetings will be held between February 27, 2010 and March 12, 2010. Contact your local voter registration office or search for your county precinct. You can also contact your local party headquarters and they should be able to tell you when your precinct meetings will be held.

This is a wonderful way to get involved at the local level and see how grassroots politics work.

What is going on with this country lately? We have people wearing guns to political meetings, especially ones where President Obama is in attendance. We have a Senator disrupting our President while he is giving a speech, Kanye grabbing the microphone, from Taylor Swift while she is giving a thank you speech for winning an award, and giving accolades to someone else. Now we have a hanging of a man who survived non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, was a single dad, worked two jobs - one being for the government as a census taker.

Bill Sparkman 51, was found hanging in Daniel Boone National Forest. Mr. Sparkman at the time was working in this rural section of Kentucky taking the census, and whether this is related to what he was doing or just a means to distract for the real reason, the word "fed" was found written on his chest.

There is speculation that the reason might not be political but that Mr. Sparkman happened upon one of many drug areas in the region and saw something that he shouldn't have. If this was the case it really could not have been one of the smartest moves a drug dealer could make, as a census workers is a federal employee and hence the FBI gets involved instead of the local police department.

I am not suggesting one way or the other, I actually have my own ideas but will not mention them here. I am only putting forth common commentary (what few there have been) of various news channels. Only time will tell us what happened and hopefully they catch who did this horrible thing.

I have been reading the Congressional Budget Office's preliminary analysis of H.R. 3200. It is interesting reading in light of what other pundits are saying. One such person is Rush Limbaugh, and on his show he made an interesting comment regarding the CBO's analysis of the bill. You can read the transcript of August 14th where he says "this monstrous, 1,017 page bill, after it passes -- ten years after it passes -- there's still 17 million uninsured Americans! It does (I am sure he meant to say NOT but it is missing from the transcript) even accomplish its primary, advertised objective." Well shall we see what the CBO analysis actually says?

In the Congressional Budget's analysis on page three it says "...those provisions would yield a significant INCREASE (emphasis mine) in the number of Americans with health insurance." Here is the part Rush left out, "by 2019, CBO and the staff of JCT estimate, the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be REDUCED (emphasis mine) by about 37 million..." Now here is where Rush Limbaugh picks it up again, "...leaving about 17 million nonelderly (sic) residents uninsured..." Now Rush decided not to continue from here but I will, "(nearly half of whom would be unauthorized immigrants."

Now first of all Rush called them Americans, ummm Rush are you sure you meant to call unauthorized immigrants Americans? I think I need to go back onto Limbaugh's site and see what he has to say about that subject. I wonder what Limbaugh's position is on illegal immigrants getting health insurance...

First I need to say I am an ex-Republican turned Democrat during the 2008 presidential campaign. However, I try to look at issues and research the he said/she said blather that is on the Internet and emails through a non-partisan eye for this site. I try my hardest to keep my political ideas out of this site and report on the issues as best as I can and am able to do.

I really have no opinion as of yet one way or the other on the healthcare bill HR3200. I have been reading it, I printed it out in small print and did it by printing front to back and I have a total of 328 pages not 1,000 and some that is reported by others. Now mind you, yes I can get 1,000 pages by going to one government site that is printing it in huge letters, I preferred going to Thomas.loc.gov and printing out from their site. So far I am not stuck on the language, I don't find it very legalese as suggested. Yes there are a lot of references to other bills, and yes I do plan on going to some of those bills and seeing what they are referencing but first I want to get through HR3200.

I want to tell a little bit about myself and why I am concerned about healthcare. I suffer from Fibromyalgia and Meniere's disease. My husband has worked for a company for the past eight years and had/has wonderful health insurance. Until about two years ago. His insurance has changed every year for the past four years and has steadily gone down in what they cover, and they have also increased our deductible - we pay a deductible even we see a preferred provider, and there is also a cap (which has transferred among the different insurance companies) and I am steadily getting to the top of that cap. Why? because of my Meniere's mostly. The testings conducted; hearing test, vertigo testing and other tests, are not cheap and they take a big chunk out of my allowed amount. When I saw the huge chunk taken out due to an outpatient knee surgery (arthroscopy) and testings in the last four years my heart sank. I stopped going to the doctors and now try to go once or twice a year for just my yearly check-up (oh and they also cut into my cap so that yearly mammogram, whatever it costs, is deducted from my cap). Recently I was lucky enough to finally get approved for social security disability and will soon be covered under Medicare so all of this really is a moot point for me. Yes for me, but not for others who will be going through this and other things, and I am a concerned person and care about my fellow citizens and if I can help them to understand what is going on politically in a truthful manner I am going to try.

Day One:
I spent the morning reading HR3200 and the afternoon listening online to MSNB'c Rachel Maddow - taking notes to research what she said.

Day Two:
I went online to Sean Hannity to listen to his sound bites regarding HR3200. I had to sign up and pay for this service, no I did not pay the money so I will not get to hear what Sean had to say and research his citations. So I went to Rush Limbaugh's site. I am still there and still reading through his shows transcripts. Thank you Rush for putting them online and not charging us a fee.

continuation Wednesday August 19, 2009

Please notice the city change.

A health care town hall meeting will take place from 6:30-8 PM in Greensboro, NC on August 19, 2009 at the Teamster's Union Hall on Sandy Ridge Road.

This meeting is to make your voice heard now that health care reform is closer than it has ever been, as proclaimed on the flier. I do hope this is for us to make our voices heard and not to have a screaming match as has been the norm at most town hall meetings lately.

I want to know what is being done in Washington and Raleigh to make my health care more affordable and to report on what was asked and said at this meeting so I will be attending.

If you are interested in attending, the flier invites everyone to bring a friend and to please RSVP to Heather Welborn - Call: 704 609-5906 or email her at hwelborn@seanc.org.

Look for my follow up post on Friday the 21st.

This is just an amazing story on how relationships and serendipity all play a part in our lives.

On an Oprah show airing today, December 12, 2008 (check your local listings for time and channel), she is with Tom Cruise at his home in Telluride, Colorado. They are in his mudroom when Oprah spies a pair of really cute ladybug shoes; Tom tells her that they are Suri's favorite ladybug shoes. This is where the story begins!

You can click on this image to see a larger version.

Katja Presnal from Skimbaco helped a Cruise family friend put together a gift basket for the Katie, Tom and Suri Cruise's Christmas 2007 celebration at their Colorado home. Inside the basket were many fabulous gifts for Tom, Katie and Suri, which can be seen here at Skimbaco gift items, scroll down the page. Among the guests at the Cruise's that day and witness to the gift opening was none other than Armani. Included among the many gifts were the ladybug shoes Oprah picked up and commented on in the show.

The shoes, known as Little Lady MJs in the ladybug design, and footwear apparel, are the brainchild of Jenny Ford from Monkey-Toes. Jenny lives in Colorado, near the Cruise's, "a hop, skip, and jump from my Casa" as she describes it. Here she lives and plays with her husband and two daughters. Her designs are fun-filled animal-themed footwear that would make even the finickiest of feet happy. Jenny reports that when she thinks of Armani himself, being there, and seeing those shoes as part of the gift basket, it gives her chills.

You can see what Katja's is up to at Skimbaco Lifestyle, can you tell this lady loves to ski? Katja also has another website called Ladybug Landing, a PR, social media, marketing site where her premise is "businesses do not do businesses with business. There is always a person in a company doing business with another person." Jenny Ford also blogs at Monkey-toes Monkey where she uses that forum to talk about business with fellow entrepreneurs.

Besides the serendipity, I also find the ladybug connection interesting.

You can follow these ladies on Twitter, their IDs are KatjaPresnal and Monkeytoesshoes.

I am working on an article regarding the Economic "Bailout" in regards to banking and the auto industry. I would like your opinions to use in the upcoming article. I want thought provoking ideas and comments include any links to back up what you are saying.

Submit your opinions to Cathy@truthfulpolitics.us

WARNING!!! any comments containing slurs, or just plain obnoxious will be deleted without further consideration. I am asking for serious opinions.

Cathy

Motrin has stepped up to the plate - they listened to all the voices and removed the "babywearing" advertisement from their website. They issued a public apology and explained it was to late to pull the advertising from print but it will be stopped. 

I hope this has made more news than on my site, Twitter and a few blogs, as I feel this is a very important wake-up call for other companies. They need to have someone on their staff that represents the focus groups they are advertising to. Why Motrin did not discover that this ad would be insulting to many woman, let alone Mothers and Grandmothers, is beyond me. The reserach just wasn't behind that campaign and that is unfortunate or was it fortunate?

Will this now lead other companies to pay more attention to the groups they are focusing their ads on? Let us hope so.

-Cathy von Hassel-Davies

11/17/08 UPDATE- Motrin has pulled the ad from their site. Unfortunately it was to late to pull the print advertisements that already went out.

UPDATED-A widget has been added to the right so you can see how fast this news is spreading.

A site on the Internet published by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc., has a Motrin ad that is causing much furor among the internet Moms and Grandmas.

Here are the key words that seem to be irritations in the ad: SEEMS TO BE in fashion, I mean IN THEORY it is a great idea, who knows what else they've come up with, SUPPOSEDLY a real bonding experience, what about me? do Mom's who carry their babies CRY MORE than Mom's who don't, I SURE DO, THESE THINGS PUT A TON OF STRAIN ON YOUR BACK, NECK..., PLUS IT TOTALLY MAKES ME LOOK LIKE AN OFFICIAL MOM. She then goes on to say good things about the pain and concludes with 'if I look tired and crazy people will understand why.'

I see a lot wrong with this ad, but the main thing is that I can see some women not "babywearing" because the ad claims it would cause them pain, so much pain that they will be crying and will need pills to ease their excrutiating pain. Even though the tone of her voice is not negative I received a lot of negativity from the words that were put on the screen added by her repeating them. Even the ending was not enough to soothe the bad taste I started getting from the very first sentence.

Here is the backlash just from Twitter, a video created by Katja Presnal on her blog Ladybug Landings. Katja said it would have been a longer video but YouTube only allows 10 minutes.

Oh by the way I also "wore my babies" in a carrier 28 years ago. Do I remember the pain or have any serious side effects? NO! Am I very close to my two wondeful boys now 29 and 24? YES!

Here is the ad put out by Motrin, let me know what you think in the comments.
-Cathy von Hassel Davies

I wanted to give my actual thoughts about Sarah Palin and why I feel the Republican party lost this year. Even though this site is a non-partisan site and we try our best to keep our views out of the postings, once in a while we have to show you that we are actual people and we are human.

I was born in 1960, raised in NY (LI for the most part) by Republican parents. When I was 15 my parents moved upstate near Woodstock NY. They still maintained their Republican roots and passed on their values to me and my three siblings; out of the four of us only one was a registered Democratic.

Even though most people considered me a hippy, I was more aligned with my "greaser" friends. Doo-Wop music was our music, as we listened to Frankie Avalon and the Four Seasons, Leslie Gore, Chubby Checkers, Fats Dominio, The Everly Brothers and The Drifters, to name a few. The Beatles and Stones were listened to but very rarely. It wasn't until the late 70's when Peter Frampton, Janis Joplin, the Stones and the Beatles made our lists. We hung out at bowling alley's and diners, went to football games and keggers on Saturday nights. Drugs did not come into our scene until the mid-70's and then it was mostly marijuana and my "greaser" friends were very against it. 

Growing up I believed the Republicans when they used their rhetoric to make me, my family and friends believe that the "others" were going to ruin our economy, raise our taxes, and demoralize our youth. The "hippies" were going to take over and the world was going to go to hell, as we will all be smoking pot, stoned out of our gourd and just laying around doing nothing. Yes, even though in the mid to late 70's I was beginning to embrace the 'hippie' culture of pot, music and love everyone, I still held on to the threads of my Republican upbringing.

My Mother also instilled in me a sense of feminism - even though I would consider my Mother a fringe feminist and not Gloria Steinem by a long shot. My parents never pushed me in my education, but they also never pushed me towards marriage and the life of a housewife. I never had aspirations of going to college but I did plan on marrying and having children. I worked off and on during my marriage and the early years of my boys growing up. I knew I was not going to be sub-servient to my man but I would stand "behind" him.

I then had this need to go to college, as a non-traditional student (I was 31) enrolled in State University of New York Delhi and received my liberal arts degree. While at SUNY the presidential election of 1992 in which George H. Bush ran against Bill Clinton started to be the main topic on campus. I took a class with Professor Nadar and one of our readings was a book by Robert Reich, and what he said started making sense to me. However; I was still wrapped up in listening to the political commercials of the Republicans and believing them. Bill Clinton will; increase our debt as his state Arkansas had doubled in debt, double government spending, raise taxes, and crime will increase, as Arkansas' had the biggest increase in crime rate. Clicking on the links will take you to some of the 1992 commercials. I liked some of the things that Bill Clinton stood for, yet those Republican commercials kept me in fear of learning more.

Then we got through the Clinton years - we survived - there was no major fallout from those years. The only thing that came about was trying to impeach him, Whitewater and what loomed the strongest was his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Boy did us Republicans jump on that, to the extent of it trickling down to Hillary Clinton. I did not give her a chance because I immediately went on the defensive; why in hell didn't she kick her husband out? why didn't she leave him? Then I grew up... No really, I realized through the love of my husband and my love for him that people can get through anything as long as the love is there. We did not have any cheating scenario in our household, but I started thinking, if it did happen what would I do. My love for him is so very strong that I could not give up on him that easily, so I now believe that is how Hillary looked at it. 

Then came the Bush years, by now I have earned my B.A. degree. I received it in 1996 and I believe this was the beginning of my eyes opening. At first slits, then a little further as my husband lost his hard earned pension from a company he worked with for 15 years, even wider yet when Katrina made landfall in 2005, interest rates started increasing, gas prices increased and our economy went into a downward spiral. Eyes now wide open.

My foray into politics and truthfulness all began when I started receiving emails about Target, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft, to name a few. I would go to Snopes and check on the information, or do a search to only discover a lot of the information coming through my email accounts were false; based on rumors. This led to the beginning of my research endeavors, as things came through I would research the information. Then I started receiving emails against Barack Obama and again I would go out and research the information. The more I researched, the more I discovered these emails were laden with falsity. The more I discovered, the more I realized how the Republicans focused on scare tactics and how they would use your fears to keep you listening to them and stay aligned to their thinking. I began to understand Michael Moore's movie Bowling for Columbine and
his premise of news and how the way of life in America is based on the fear
factor. The more I researched, the more I discovered, the more I realized.

I then started noticing how the Republicans were all about the negative and yet every time I heard Barack Obama give a talk he was about the positive and using talk to uplift us - showing us that the positive can definitely be a big part of our life. During this time I was still a die hard Republican and planning on voting for my man John McCain, however; I was beginning to lean Obama. I looked into his campaign, I started listening to what the Democrats had to say, I started agreeing with the views of the Obama campaign. Then it happened... John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, a woman, yet something deep inside said he picked her to sway over the Hillary Clinton voters. I watched the interaction between John McCain and Sarah Palin on the stage that day he announced his running mate, I noticed there was no spark, no connectiveness, but I said I will give them a chance, maybe it was due to not really knowing each other and once they started hitting the campaign trail that would change. It never did.

My brother (another die hard Republican) called me on the phone just after she was picked and asked me what I thought of Sarah Palin. I told him I couldn't answer him yet as I don't know a thing about her and would have to research her first before I formed an opinion. The other end got dead silent, I thought we got disconnected, but no, my brother was in stunned silence. I am sure he expected me to jump on the bandwagon wholeheartedly because she is a Republican and a woman. 

The more I discovered, the more I began to be insulted at John McCain's pick. I knew more about politics than she did; I feel strongly that the people running for President and Vice President need to know at least as much as I do, and I really prefer they know more. Then I started looking at what she stood for and it was against everything I did. I really felt she was a step backwards for women.

Then she started doing her interviews - and I was embarrassed to be affiliated with the party. Then came the strong negative campaigns, then came the lies, the harder I researched the more I discovered, the more I became embarrassed, the more I started volunteering for Obama. I then joined Republicans for Obama, then came my biggest move ever. I changed my political party. Yes that is right I became a Democrat, then I joined the Democratic Women Organization, but I stayed true to Obama and increased my volunteer efforts. The more Sarah Palin went out and spread the lies the more I volunteered. Now please don't get me wrong, I know Obama and Biden did stretch the truth at times and yes I did research what they had to say but the biggest offenders were the Republicans.

What truly amazed me was the more I volunteered the more I met other Republicans, like me, tired of the negative campaign, very insulted at McCain's pick, and extremely humiliated at having our intelligence insulted. As Obama volunteers we were told 'when you are talking to someone and if it turned into negative remarks about Obama, McCain or their issues turn it around to the positive, do not go the negative route.'

I then started to get word out to other Republicans about how Obama truly viewed things, how his issues were really this or that and not what McCain said Obama was going to do. When asked where I got my information I told them I researched it. I went out to Thomas.gov, I went out to the Illinois site, the Arizona site, our government sites, and other sites to gather the information I needed. I was not believed. I was told "uh huh sure, yup okay if that is what you say." Even my own Father on Election Night when I told him that we are actually informed voters and look up the issues and go out to the appropriate sites I heard, "Okay Cathy we have to end this conversation now! I can no longer talk to you at this moment." In other words he was extremely mad and did not believe me and could not believe that I actually thought/believed what I said. They would not listen, they would only spew things that they heard McCain's campaign say. Reminds of a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel song Sounds of Silence. If John McCain or the Republican party said it, it was true. It did not matter how much research you did - whatever you found was false.

It made me sad, it made me mad and it really started getting to me. I don't know if it was because I am female or because I was saying something alien to them. But how in the world could you go on spewing the lies without actually listening to the other side?

Every time I listened to McCain I truly wanted to hear about his issues, what was he going to do, yet all I heard was what Obama was going to do. If I wanted to know what Obama was going to do I would listen to Barack Obama not John McCain. I wanted to know what John McCain and Sarah Palin stood for and what they were going to do for us. I tried I really did. On the McCain side I would read the literature, and when they sent me a column view on the issues between McCain and Obama with only Yes and No answers and then I went to Obama's site and looked at a similar piece of literature and Obama's gave actual explanations, I felt as if I was being talked to not at. I felt I was treated as a smart person and not as someone who is to stupid to understand the talk so we will dumb it down for you. I was truly insulted by the Republicans. This was the same feeling I got when I emailed or talked to fellow Republicans.

That was when I knew, I knew no matter what I said or wrote I would just be treated as a stupid person who knew not of what she spoke or wrote. I knew I would never, ever get through to the Republican screaming at me, whose face was red with anger. I knew that as a woman saying these things it meant less then if another man would say it. I knew a new time was coming and I had to work hard to see it come about. I knew that no matter what John McCain did it would never be what was truly need. I knew no matter what Sarah Palin said or did she would never ever break the glass ceiling that so many women before her had cracked. As I am sure many other men and women also knew and that is why we now have Senator Barack Obama as our new President elect.

-Cathy von Hassel-Davies

The five polling locations:

North Newlin District - Eli Whitney Recreation Center 4110 E. Greensboro-Chapel Hill Rd

South Newlin District - Chatham Friends Meeting 4507 Greenhill Rd

North Thompson District - Swepsonville Fire Station 2700 Swepsonville Rd

South Thompson District - Salem United Methodist Church 4924 Salem Church Rd

Patterson District - Sylvan Elementary School 7718 Sylvan Rd

Voting is going smoothly and there have been no long lines since 7:00 this morning. I imagine it is due to people getting out and voting before work. Tonight I expect the craziness to begin.

October 29, 2008 Truthful Politics journalist Cathy von Hassel-Davies went to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she met with fellow blogger Ilina from Dirt and Noise. They headed to a private house located in Raleigh's historical Five Oaks disrict for a meet and greet with Edie Falco, Carmella from The Sopranos. Cathy discovered she had a unique bond with Edie Falco, they both lived in the same small town in upstate NY. Edie Falco was in NC stumping for Obama and making sure that everyone would go out and vote preferably early.

You can click on photo to enlarge.

Afterwards Ilina and Cathy headed downtown for the Obama Rally. We are still gathering, viewing and editing all the videos and pictures, but unfortunately Cathy is an extremely active volunteer with one of the presidential campaigns and these next four days are crazy busy for her.

Cathy overcame her fear of heights and went up on a scissor lift with the lift operator and two other journalists so she can get this amazing picture of the gathering crowd with downtown Raleigh in the background.

for the corporation, business or person whose income is 300,000 on up. I just put out a challenge to my fellow Republican friends and I will put it out here also.

I want links to articles or videos where John McCain or Sarah Palin speak of what they will do for the US as President/Vice President in specifics. When they talk about cutting taxes for Americans I want to hear/read them say what income bracket they are talking about. When they talk about cutting taxes for business, what profit range are they talking about. Things like this, I want specifics. I don't want a speech or snippet of whatever, telling me what they "think" the Obama/Biden ticket will do, I really do not give a rats ass what either party thinks the other wants/will do. I want to know exactly what THEY will do.

I was just listening to Ali Velshi CNN's Business Analyst regarding the stimulus packet of the Democrats vs. the Republicans proposals. He mentioned Ben Bernacke and whether he should be floating into the world of politics or not, some people think that call was a bit political as it seemed to be more identified with Barack Obama's position then John McCain's. 

A Breakdown of what Democrats think:

More cash assistance for infrastructure projects, basically building projects to create new jobs.

Extend jobless benefits

Raise the limits on loans backed by the Government to create more guaranteed home loans.

A Breakdown of what Republicans think:

Cut Capital Gains tax in half for 2 years, those are gains on things that have increased in value, stocks and things like that.

Cut Income Tax for firms buying troubled assets and mortgage loans.

Expand Capital Gain exclusion on home sales - right now a 250,000 dollar exclusion - in other words if you sell a house and you make 250,000 on it you get an exclusion from the capital gain tax, if a couple half a million; that is on your primary residence. The Republicans are suggesting people who buy additional residence over the next five years should be able to claim the same thing. Typcially you can't do that, the idea is if you encourage people through tax breaks to buy more of these homes you might deal with some of these homes that are on the market. In other words people with money will go and buy other homes and make them into rental properties or things like that and therefore buying up these excess homes that are on the market.

Now I am really trying to look at this rationally but it seems to me that the Democratic breakdown seems more prolific and would benefit from the average worker on up; whereas, the Republucan breakdown is for the person actually making a lot more than average Joe Six-pack/Plumber. 

I would like to know what the breakdown is on average home worth of houses in trouble. Are these troubled mortgages on houses that you could sell for profits in excess of 250,000 dollars? or are these houses with actual mortgages in the 100,000 to 300,000 dollar range where you wouldn't see that kind of profit?

I am being serious here, I am totally confused by this. I thought our mortgage crisis were on homes where credit was extended to familes that really could not afford the monthly mortgage payment - either through job loss, increased interest rates, etc. For me that would be average Joe, little-less than average Joe, or someone who was a credit minimum credit risk, not someone who would be buying homes in upwards of half a million dollars, at least, because that is actually a profit, so what priced house would it be if you are making that much of a profit on its sale? For me this seems like trickle down economy but then again I'm no economist just ask Professor Gatabaki ;-)

Who are we bailing out - the banks and those in the upper echelon of society or the banks and average Sue?