September 28, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE GOP'S RAW DEAL
The problems created by extreme right-wing ideology have been growing exponentially like a snowball rolling downhill. Most of the crises we now see can trace their roots back to the right-wing ideology that has prevailed since Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. Our prisons are bulging because of drug laws that are out of touch with reality. We are falling behind the rest of the industrialized world in math and science because right-wingers are looking for the Rapture and because they disdain science. We are seeing an increasing climate crisis because right-wingers won't acknowledge the obvious man-made causes of global climate change. We are stuck in a morally reprehensible war because right-wingers wanted to assert American power regardless of the consequences. The U. S. economy is in a mess thanks to the trickle down nonsense that started with Reagan and got ramped up under George W. Bush. This commentary by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Eric Schlosser calls for a second New Deal. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
Advocates of the free market must confront the fact that both the Great Depression and the current financial chaos were preceded by years of laissez-faire economic policies. Strictly enforced regulations not only protect consumers, they protect companies that behave ethically from those that don't. The sale of tainted baby food in China demonstrates, once again, that when industries are allowed to police themselves, there's absolutely no limit on what they'll do for money.
Third, we need reconstruction, not only of America's physical infrastructure, but also of its society. Today close to 50 million Americans lack health insurance. About 40% of the nation's adult population is facing medical debts, or having difficulty paying medical bills. A universal health-care system would help American families, while cutting the nation's long-term health-care costs. And a large-scale federal investment in renewable energy and public-works projects would build the foundation for a strong 21st century economy.
Contrary to the myth of the free market, direct government intervention has played a central role throughout American economic history, subsidizing the growth of the railroad, automobile, aerospace and computer industries, among others. It will take well-planned government investment to break our dependence on foreign oil and create millions of new Green jobs.
The events of the past month have proven, beyond any doubt, that the federal government must actively address America's great social and economic problems. That necessity was recognized by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the 1930s -- and by his cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt, a generation earlier.
BUSH'S SORRY RECORD
When you look back to the days prior to Hurricane Katrina ravaging the Gulf Coast you have to wonder why George W. Bush rode so high in the popularity polls for so long. His record from the very beginning has been stained with corruption. He got into the White House despite losing the popular vote because of his friends on the Supreme Court. His vice president, Dick Cheney, led an energy task force that conducted its meetings in secret, even though the need for energy dictates much about our lives. He was completely absent stopping the terrorist attacks on 9/11, but used that attack to bolster his popularity and to ram through tax breaks for his rich friends and to attack civil liberties. Hurricane Katrina revealed Bush for what he really was all along. Evidence that this war was justified on lies and now the economic crisis are just more proof of Bush's miserable record. This editorial is from The Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com:
As the Bush administration attempts to stabilize the nation's economy, we are witness to the final chapter of a period of perverse and dishonest leadership that has used its own crises to justify the expansion of its own power. This was a president who came to office on promises of modesty -- who championed a "humble nation," scorned nation building and promised a more limited role for government in the lives of its citizens. Then he presided over a six-year attempt to tear down and rebuild the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and now has embarked on the most profound expansion of the federal government's role in the private economy since the Depression.
In both cases, the pattern is the same. Ineptitude led to crisis; crisis then became the argument for the radical expansion of executive power. The administration insisted that it exercise its new authority with a minimum of scrutiny by Congress, the courts or the public.
In the so-called war on terror, that has meant the abdication of our most basic American principles. We have forfeited privacy and honor -- the administration has monitored phones and e-mails without warrants and has secreted prisoners in foreign lands, arguing that they deserved none of our protections even while in our custody. As a nation, we have stooped to torture (while debating the meaning of the word) and refused to recognize one of our most basic Anglo-American notions, the principle of habeas corpus (thankfully, the Supreme Court, seven of whose members are Republicans, drew the line at that abomination). We have held prisoners in detention without trial, without charge, without end. In so doing, we have antagonized the world and debased America's moral authority to lead.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
September 25, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WALL STREET COUNTS, BUT WE DON'T
We've heard conservatives talk about "personal responsibility" for years. In their ideal system government will never lift a finger to help people like you and me. It's all up to the "market." The "market" decides if you can have a decent job, decent wages, a place to live, food to eat, a chance for an education, and health care. But when Wall Street gets into trouble thanks to its own greed and corruption guess who's first in line to ask for a handout? The whole right-wing ideology of the free market should be thrown on the trash heap of history. This article by Helen Thomas is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
What has happened to those conservative Republican leaders whose mantra was "government is the problem -- not the solution"?
Tell that to the once-bloated financial giants now standing in line for whopping government handouts to the tune of $700 billion. And who can forget those who wanted to "get the government off our backs"? Their silence now is deafening.
In the rush for bailouts for the hard-hit government mortgage finance giants, the U.S. Treasury seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is trying to rescue American International Group, the largest insurer of the world. It allowed 158-year-old Lehman Brothers to collapse, but came to the rescue of the Bear, Stearns, another Wall Street firm.
RIGHT WING MAKE BELIEVE
What we're seeing now is really the culmination of what started during the Reagan years. Who better than a former actor to offer up a fairy tale world where cutting taxes could lead us to the land of Oz? Never mind that massive amounts of money were spent on the military, that we suddenly had gargantuan deficits, and that the gap grew dramatically between the rich and poor. Hard line right wingers will still defend Reagan, claiming that government revenues actually increased, and that the deficits were due to too much spending. To hear them tell it, Reagan had nothing whatever to do with the deficits, or the corruption that resulted from reducing regulations on business. This article by Robert Parry is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The lead piper in this parade away from America’s tough choices was Ronald Reagan who insisted in his First Inaugural Address in 1981 that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
As President, Reagan attacked the federal regulatory system and cut taxes so recklessly that his budget director, David Stockman, foresaw red ink “as far as the eye can see.” Reagan also justified fattening the Pentagon’s budget by citing dire warnings that the Soviet Union was on the rise (despite CIA analysis at the time that it was in sharp decline).
To marginalize dissent, Reagan and his subordinates stoked anger toward anyone who challenged the era’s feel-good optimism. Skeptics were not just honorable critics, they were un-American defeatists or – in Jeane Kirkpatrick’s memorable attack line – they would “blame America first.”
Under Reagan, a right-wing infrastructure also took shape, linking new media outlets (magazines, newspapers, books, etc.) with well-financed think tanks that churned out endless op-eds. Plus, there were attack groups that went after mainstream journalists who dared disclose information that poked holes in Reagan’s propaganda themes.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WALL STREET COUNTS, BUT WE DON'T
We've heard conservatives talk about "personal responsibility" for years. In their ideal system government will never lift a finger to help people like you and me. It's all up to the "market." The "market" decides if you can have a decent job, decent wages, a place to live, food to eat, a chance for an education, and health care. But when Wall Street gets into trouble thanks to its own greed and corruption guess who's first in line to ask for a handout? The whole right-wing ideology of the free market should be thrown on the trash heap of history. This article by Helen Thomas is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
What has happened to those conservative Republican leaders whose mantra was "government is the problem -- not the solution"?
Tell that to the once-bloated financial giants now standing in line for whopping government handouts to the tune of $700 billion. And who can forget those who wanted to "get the government off our backs"? Their silence now is deafening.
In the rush for bailouts for the hard-hit government mortgage finance giants, the U.S. Treasury seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and is trying to rescue American International Group, the largest insurer of the world. It allowed 158-year-old Lehman Brothers to collapse, but came to the rescue of the Bear, Stearns, another Wall Street firm.
RIGHT WING MAKE BELIEVE
What we're seeing now is really the culmination of what started during the Reagan years. Who better than a former actor to offer up a fairy tale world where cutting taxes could lead us to the land of Oz? Never mind that massive amounts of money were spent on the military, that we suddenly had gargantuan deficits, and that the gap grew dramatically between the rich and poor. Hard line right wingers will still defend Reagan, claiming that government revenues actually increased, and that the deficits were due to too much spending. To hear them tell it, Reagan had nothing whatever to do with the deficits, or the corruption that resulted from reducing regulations on business. This article by Robert Parry is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The lead piper in this parade away from America’s tough choices was Ronald Reagan who insisted in his First Inaugural Address in 1981 that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
As President, Reagan attacked the federal regulatory system and cut taxes so recklessly that his budget director, David Stockman, foresaw red ink “as far as the eye can see.” Reagan also justified fattening the Pentagon’s budget by citing dire warnings that the Soviet Union was on the rise (despite CIA analysis at the time that it was in sharp decline).
To marginalize dissent, Reagan and his subordinates stoked anger toward anyone who challenged the era’s feel-good optimism. Skeptics were not just honorable critics, they were un-American defeatists or – in Jeane Kirkpatrick’s memorable attack line – they would “blame America first.”
Under Reagan, a right-wing infrastructure also took shape, linking new media outlets (magazines, newspapers, books, etc.) with well-financed think tanks that churned out endless op-eds. Plus, there were attack groups that went after mainstream journalists who dared disclose information that poked holes in Reagan’s propaganda themes.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
September 23, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WEALTH DOESN'T EQUAL MORALITY
Harper's Magazine editor Lewis Lapham once described the awe of the rich in the United States as the "wish for kings." Our country was founded by breaking away from a monarchy, but there are many who would truly love a king. Since we don't have official royalty, they defer to the wealthy instead. Just as the "divine right of kings" was a belief system in the past, there are those now who believe that rich people are rich because it is somehow ordained by God. That idea gets shattered when you examine the very rich and see how they got there. Thomas Jefferson had it right in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, "all men are created equal." No one is better just because they have a big bank account, and the interests of the very wealthy should not supersede the interests of the majority of us. This commentary by Alicia Morgan is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The Myth of the Free Market is exactly that - a myth. It’s a Utopian model that does not work in real life, because it only works if all things are equal - if the worker, the employer, and the consumer all have equal power and influence. And we know that is not true at all.
So - up to this point, we have: wages falling, prices rising, and profits escalating.
If the profit margin were roughly equal to the wage and price margin, one would assume that the market was working correctly - if there was a downturn that was felt by all, then it would be more or less attributable to forces that were outside of the wage/price/cost/profit structure - perhaps a natural disaster, governmental upheaval, or a failure of some aspect of production.
But if profits are rising for corporations, and growth is rising, and consumers are getting poorer at the same time, the only reasonable explanation is that those profits are coming from somewhere within that system - a transfer.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
WEALTH DOESN'T EQUAL MORALITY
Harper's Magazine editor Lewis Lapham once described the awe of the rich in the United States as the "wish for kings." Our country was founded by breaking away from a monarchy, but there are many who would truly love a king. Since we don't have official royalty, they defer to the wealthy instead. Just as the "divine right of kings" was a belief system in the past, there are those now who believe that rich people are rich because it is somehow ordained by God. That idea gets shattered when you examine the very rich and see how they got there. Thomas Jefferson had it right in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote, "all men are created equal." No one is better just because they have a big bank account, and the interests of the very wealthy should not supersede the interests of the majority of us. This commentary by Alicia Morgan is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The Myth of the Free Market is exactly that - a myth. It’s a Utopian model that does not work in real life, because it only works if all things are equal - if the worker, the employer, and the consumer all have equal power and influence. And we know that is not true at all.
So - up to this point, we have: wages falling, prices rising, and profits escalating.
If the profit margin were roughly equal to the wage and price margin, one would assume that the market was working correctly - if there was a downturn that was felt by all, then it would be more or less attributable to forces that were outside of the wage/price/cost/profit structure - perhaps a natural disaster, governmental upheaval, or a failure of some aspect of production.
But if profits are rising for corporations, and growth is rising, and consumers are getting poorer at the same time, the only reasonable explanation is that those profits are coming from somewhere within that system - a transfer.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
September 21, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
GOP IS THE TITANIC
When the Titanic was built its builders thought the ship was unsinkable. Impact with an iceberg destroyed that idea and countless passengers died. The GOP has run all kinds of ideas past us, claiming that privatization and the free market can cure all ills. Never mind that we had a successful run from the time of the New Deal until the early 1970's with ideas that go contrary to what the GOP dishes out.
Since the 1970's, life has gotten considerably worse for the working class in this country. Unions, under constant assault by business elites and right-wing politicians, have seen their membership decline. Good jobs, especially in manufacturing, have been globalized and shipped offshore. We have seen deregulation of many key industries, such as the telecommunications industry, the airline industry, and banking and finance. Airlines are in big trouble now and we have seen the virtual meltdown of the financial sector in the past few days.
The Great Depression should have been a powerful lesson, but apparently it eluded Republicans. In this article Frank Rich talks about the McCain campaign and the consistent and repetitious use of lies. The press has been notably derelict in doing its job in coverage of Republican lies in the past. This commentary is at www.nytimes.com:
If you doubt that the big lies are sticking, look at the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. Half of voters now believe in the daily McCain refrain that Obama will raise their taxes. In fact, Obama proposes raising taxes only on the 1.9 percent of households that make more than $250,000 a year and cutting them for nearly everyone else.
You know the press is impotent at unmasking this truthiness when the hardest-hitting interrogation McCain has yet faced on television came on “The View.” Barbara Walters and Joy Behar called him on several falsehoods, including his endlessly repeated fantasy that Palin opposed earmarks for Alaska. Behar used the word “lies” to his face. The McCains are so used to deference from “the filter” that Cindy McCain later complained that “The View” picked “our bones clean.” In our news culture, Behar, a stand-up comic by profession, looms as the new Edward R. Murrow.
Network news, with its dwindling handful of investigative reporters, has barely mentioned, let alone advanced, major new print revelations about Cindy McCain’s drug-addiction history (in The Washington Post) and the rampant cronyism and secrecy in Palin’s governance of Alaska (in last Sunday’s New York Times). At least the networks repeatedly fact-check the low-hanging fruit among the countless Palin lies, but John McCain’s past usually remains off limits.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
GOP IS THE TITANIC
When the Titanic was built its builders thought the ship was unsinkable. Impact with an iceberg destroyed that idea and countless passengers died. The GOP has run all kinds of ideas past us, claiming that privatization and the free market can cure all ills. Never mind that we had a successful run from the time of the New Deal until the early 1970's with ideas that go contrary to what the GOP dishes out.
Since the 1970's, life has gotten considerably worse for the working class in this country. Unions, under constant assault by business elites and right-wing politicians, have seen their membership decline. Good jobs, especially in manufacturing, have been globalized and shipped offshore. We have seen deregulation of many key industries, such as the telecommunications industry, the airline industry, and banking and finance. Airlines are in big trouble now and we have seen the virtual meltdown of the financial sector in the past few days.
The Great Depression should have been a powerful lesson, but apparently it eluded Republicans. In this article Frank Rich talks about the McCain campaign and the consistent and repetitious use of lies. The press has been notably derelict in doing its job in coverage of Republican lies in the past. This commentary is at www.nytimes.com:
If you doubt that the big lies are sticking, look at the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. Half of voters now believe in the daily McCain refrain that Obama will raise their taxes. In fact, Obama proposes raising taxes only on the 1.9 percent of households that make more than $250,000 a year and cutting them for nearly everyone else.
You know the press is impotent at unmasking this truthiness when the hardest-hitting interrogation McCain has yet faced on television came on “The View.” Barbara Walters and Joy Behar called him on several falsehoods, including his endlessly repeated fantasy that Palin opposed earmarks for Alaska. Behar used the word “lies” to his face. The McCains are so used to deference from “the filter” that Cindy McCain later complained that “The View” picked “our bones clean.” In our news culture, Behar, a stand-up comic by profession, looms as the new Edward R. Murrow.
Network news, with its dwindling handful of investigative reporters, has barely mentioned, let alone advanced, major new print revelations about Cindy McCain’s drug-addiction history (in The Washington Post) and the rampant cronyism and secrecy in Palin’s governance of Alaska (in last Sunday’s New York Times). At least the networks repeatedly fact-check the low-hanging fruit among the countless Palin lies, but John McCain’s past usually remains off limits.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
September 17, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
FREE MARKET NOT SO GREAT AFTER ALL
You wonder how history might have been different if Ronald Reagan had been defeated in 1980 in his run for the presidency and sent back to spouting right-wing ideology on the rubber chicken circuit. When Reagan won the White House in 1980 it set in motion the extreme right-wing free market ideology that has resulted in the mess we see now. We've heard it from right-wing politicians, right-wing evangelicals, and the right-wing loudmouths on talk radio: free markets can cure anything that ails us. We have to get rid of big bad government. Social programs are horrible. Things like the minimum wage, national health insurance, and Social Security are "socialism." It always was nonsense. Letting business govern itself is like letting wolves loose among the sheep. This editorial looks at John McCain's attempt to distance himself from the Bush administration and the free market ideologues, even though McCain has been a proponent and supporter of those same policies. The editorial is at www.nytimes.com:
For decades, typical Americans have not been rewarded for their increasing productivity with comparably higher pay or better benefits. The disconnect between work and reward has been especially acute during the Bush years, as workers’ incomes fell while corporate profits, which flow to investors and company executives, ballooned. For workers, that is a fundamental flaw in today’s economy. It is grounded in policies like a chronically inadequate minimum wage and an increasingly unprogressive tax system, for which Mr. McCain offers no alternatives.
As for Wall Street, Mr. McCain blamed the meltdown on “unbridled corruption and greed.” He called for a commission to find out what happened and propose solutions. His diagnosis and his cure are misguided. The crisis on Wall Street is fundamentally a failure to do the things that temper, detect and punish corruption and greed. It was a failure to police the markets, to enforce rules, to heed and sound warnings and expose questionable products and practices.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
FREE MARKET NOT SO GREAT AFTER ALL
You wonder how history might have been different if Ronald Reagan had been defeated in 1980 in his run for the presidency and sent back to spouting right-wing ideology on the rubber chicken circuit. When Reagan won the White House in 1980 it set in motion the extreme right-wing free market ideology that has resulted in the mess we see now. We've heard it from right-wing politicians, right-wing evangelicals, and the right-wing loudmouths on talk radio: free markets can cure anything that ails us. We have to get rid of big bad government. Social programs are horrible. Things like the minimum wage, national health insurance, and Social Security are "socialism." It always was nonsense. Letting business govern itself is like letting wolves loose among the sheep. This editorial looks at John McCain's attempt to distance himself from the Bush administration and the free market ideologues, even though McCain has been a proponent and supporter of those same policies. The editorial is at www.nytimes.com:
For decades, typical Americans have not been rewarded for their increasing productivity with comparably higher pay or better benefits. The disconnect between work and reward has been especially acute during the Bush years, as workers’ incomes fell while corporate profits, which flow to investors and company executives, ballooned. For workers, that is a fundamental flaw in today’s economy. It is grounded in policies like a chronically inadequate minimum wage and an increasingly unprogressive tax system, for which Mr. McCain offers no alternatives.
As for Wall Street, Mr. McCain blamed the meltdown on “unbridled corruption and greed.” He called for a commission to find out what happened and propose solutions. His diagnosis and his cure are misguided. The crisis on Wall Street is fundamentally a failure to do the things that temper, detect and punish corruption and greed. It was a failure to police the markets, to enforce rules, to heed and sound warnings and expose questionable products and practices.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
September 16, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
BACK TO THE REAL ISSUES
Suddenly we don't have to read about the Great Depression anymore because we're seeing the Great Depression II developing. For years now, most of us have experienced flat-lining wages, increases in health care costs, longer periods of unemployment, and seeing jobs outsourced to other countries. We saw a despicable bankruptcy law that makes debt slaves out of us. We saw the Bush administration push through a huge gift for the pharmaceutical industry. Now, thanks to the right wing's beloved concept of deregulation, we're seeing a meltdown of the financial industry. Names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mae, and Fannie Mae are becoming household words. The stock market plummeted over 500 points yesterday. But John McCain and right-wingers tell us the economy is "fundamentally sound." For whom? This column by E. J. Dionne is at www.washingtonpost.com:
All of a sudden, the culture war seems entirely beside the point, an unaffordable luxury in a time of economic turmoil. What politicians actually believe about the economy, what fixes they propose, whether they side with the wealthy few or the hurting many -- these become the stuff of elections, the reasons behind people's votes.
And nothing more exposes the hypocrisy of financial elites riding the coattails of those who revere small-town religious values than a downturn that highlights the vast gulf in power between the two key components of the conservative coalition. Even cultural conservatives will start to notice that McCain's tax policies are geared toward the wealthy investing class and Obama's toward the paycheck crowd. Even the most ardent friends of business have begun to argue that a re-engagement with sensible regulation is essential to restoring capitalism's health.
For some time, McCain's strategists figured they could deflect attention from the big issues by turning Palin into a country-and-western celebrity and launching so many ill-founded attacks on Obama that the truth would never catch up. The McCain strategists' approach reflected a low opinion of average voters, and some Obama supporters began worrying that their opinion might be right.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
BACK TO THE REAL ISSUES
Suddenly we don't have to read about the Great Depression anymore because we're seeing the Great Depression II developing. For years now, most of us have experienced flat-lining wages, increases in health care costs, longer periods of unemployment, and seeing jobs outsourced to other countries. We saw a despicable bankruptcy law that makes debt slaves out of us. We saw the Bush administration push through a huge gift for the pharmaceutical industry. Now, thanks to the right wing's beloved concept of deregulation, we're seeing a meltdown of the financial industry. Names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mae, and Fannie Mae are becoming household words. The stock market plummeted over 500 points yesterday. But John McCain and right-wingers tell us the economy is "fundamentally sound." For whom? This column by E. J. Dionne is at www.washingtonpost.com:
All of a sudden, the culture war seems entirely beside the point, an unaffordable luxury in a time of economic turmoil. What politicians actually believe about the economy, what fixes they propose, whether they side with the wealthy few or the hurting many -- these become the stuff of elections, the reasons behind people's votes.
And nothing more exposes the hypocrisy of financial elites riding the coattails of those who revere small-town religious values than a downturn that highlights the vast gulf in power between the two key components of the conservative coalition. Even cultural conservatives will start to notice that McCain's tax policies are geared toward the wealthy investing class and Obama's toward the paycheck crowd. Even the most ardent friends of business have begun to argue that a re-engagement with sensible regulation is essential to restoring capitalism's health.
For some time, McCain's strategists figured they could deflect attention from the big issues by turning Palin into a country-and-western celebrity and launching so many ill-founded attacks on Obama that the truth would never catch up. The McCain strategists' approach reflected a low opinion of average voters, and some Obama supporters began worrying that their opinion might be right.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
September 14, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOP
Hate is what drives the GOP. Republicans essentially believe that they are better than other people. People of other ethnic groups, other income groups, other religions, other races, or who are intellectuals are either inferior or a threat to all that Republicans to believe to be good and decent.
Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy used hate and a ramped up fear of Communism to advance their agendas.
Ronald Reagan spoke in Philadelphia, Mississippi, famous as the site where three civil rights workers were murdered, as a signal to the states' rights crowd, the people one breath away from burning crosses and wearing white hoods.
George H. W. Bush benefited from the use of ads featuring Willie Horton, a black man who was a criminal, to underline the concept that "some people" have to be kept under control and in their place. George W. Bush has made all Muslims the enemy. He has benefited from the "fear card" perhaps more than his predecessors.
John McCain is using racism even more overtly because he's actually running against an African-American candidate. This commentary is at www.bobboblog.org:
The GOP hardcore base embrace bigots and liars like McCain/Palin because in the darkness of their own souls they hold those same values. As individuals they are too dishonest to get up and admit that in public. McCain/Palin gives them permission to feel good about their own bigotry and small-mindedness. Armed with a permission slip from two major political candidates, they can give full throat to their own worst instincts. They are cowards and if they had any sense of decency they would feel a deep sense of shame and would come begging for our forgiveness.
Fortunately, the GOP hardcore base is still a minority in this country. If the serial lying of McCain/Palin proves to be ineffective at turning them into a majority, McCain/Palin will end up being tossed into the political dumpster like a tied-off plastic bag of used diapers.
THE MYTH OF SELF-CORRECTING MARKETS
Right-wingers throw out crumbs to evangelicals, making them believe that God and country are important. But the true religion of right-wingers is the "free market." We're supposed to have an unbounded faith in the free market, that it's more efficient than government, that it's "self-correcting" when things go awry. Even though right-wingers won't admit it, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and Bear Stearns before that is a tacit admission that the market isn't self-correcting after all. Government has a definite role to play in the economy. If government has a role to play for the big players, then why not for us little people? This commentary by Deborah Stone is at www.commondreams.org:
Self-interest, profits and free markets, we have been promised, are the great social engines. Now, as the American housing market collapses and the world trembles before our mistakes, those profit-driven, supposedly self-correcting and perfectly efficient engines are turning against us like Frankenstein. Why did anybody ever believe that CEOs and shareholders whose every incentive leads them to seek greater profits would care about anything else, such as their purported government mission to foster homeownership and stable communities?
Maybe this is the ultimate lesson in why the Republican strategy of privatization and deregulation doesn't work. Markets depend on confidence--confidence that somebody stands behind the currency of exchange, confidence that somebody will hold buyers and sellers to their promises, and above all, confidence that if banks and big businesses crash, somebody will step in to help all the little people who might be wiped out with them.
It's telling that the very officials who have been dead-set against regulation and bailouts justify the new government plan as necessary to restore confidence. The markets are perfectly healthy, they kept saying, but the public's confidence is faltering. On July 17, just after the big bailout was proposed, Fannie Mae's CEO, Daniel Mudd, told Newshour's Judy Woodruff, "Fannie Mae is very financially sound. We have . . . more capital than we've had at any point in our history." If your capitalization is as strong as you say, asked Woodruff, why do you need this Treasury plan to help you out? "All the capital markets, the lending markets, are really built on confidence," Mudd replied. "Confidence has gotten jittery over the past quarter or so." It's important, he continued, "that there be a strong backstop (Mudd never uttered the words "bailout" or "rescue") in case that kind of lack of confidence and that kind of jitteriness continued for too long."
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOP
Hate is what drives the GOP. Republicans essentially believe that they are better than other people. People of other ethnic groups, other income groups, other religions, other races, or who are intellectuals are either inferior or a threat to all that Republicans to believe to be good and decent.
Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy used hate and a ramped up fear of Communism to advance their agendas.
Ronald Reagan spoke in Philadelphia, Mississippi, famous as the site where three civil rights workers were murdered, as a signal to the states' rights crowd, the people one breath away from burning crosses and wearing white hoods.
George H. W. Bush benefited from the use of ads featuring Willie Horton, a black man who was a criminal, to underline the concept that "some people" have to be kept under control and in their place. George W. Bush has made all Muslims the enemy. He has benefited from the "fear card" perhaps more than his predecessors.
John McCain is using racism even more overtly because he's actually running against an African-American candidate. This commentary is at www.bobboblog.org:
The GOP hardcore base embrace bigots and liars like McCain/Palin because in the darkness of their own souls they hold those same values. As individuals they are too dishonest to get up and admit that in public. McCain/Palin gives them permission to feel good about their own bigotry and small-mindedness. Armed with a permission slip from two major political candidates, they can give full throat to their own worst instincts. They are cowards and if they had any sense of decency they would feel a deep sense of shame and would come begging for our forgiveness.
Fortunately, the GOP hardcore base is still a minority in this country. If the serial lying of McCain/Palin proves to be ineffective at turning them into a majority, McCain/Palin will end up being tossed into the political dumpster like a tied-off plastic bag of used diapers.
THE MYTH OF SELF-CORRECTING MARKETS
Right-wingers throw out crumbs to evangelicals, making them believe that God and country are important. But the true religion of right-wingers is the "free market." We're supposed to have an unbounded faith in the free market, that it's more efficient than government, that it's "self-correcting" when things go awry. Even though right-wingers won't admit it, the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and Bear Stearns before that is a tacit admission that the market isn't self-correcting after all. Government has a definite role to play in the economy. If government has a role to play for the big players, then why not for us little people? This commentary by Deborah Stone is at www.commondreams.org:
Self-interest, profits and free markets, we have been promised, are the great social engines. Now, as the American housing market collapses and the world trembles before our mistakes, those profit-driven, supposedly self-correcting and perfectly efficient engines are turning against us like Frankenstein. Why did anybody ever believe that CEOs and shareholders whose every incentive leads them to seek greater profits would care about anything else, such as their purported government mission to foster homeownership and stable communities?
Maybe this is the ultimate lesson in why the Republican strategy of privatization and deregulation doesn't work. Markets depend on confidence--confidence that somebody stands behind the currency of exchange, confidence that somebody will hold buyers and sellers to their promises, and above all, confidence that if banks and big businesses crash, somebody will step in to help all the little people who might be wiped out with them.
It's telling that the very officials who have been dead-set against regulation and bailouts justify the new government plan as necessary to restore confidence. The markets are perfectly healthy, they kept saying, but the public's confidence is faltering. On July 17, just after the big bailout was proposed, Fannie Mae's CEO, Daniel Mudd, told Newshour's Judy Woodruff, "Fannie Mae is very financially sound. We have . . . more capital than we've had at any point in our history." If your capitalization is as strong as you say, asked Woodruff, why do you need this Treasury plan to help you out? "All the capital markets, the lending markets, are really built on confidence," Mudd replied. "Confidence has gotten jittery over the past quarter or so." It's important, he continued, "that there be a strong backstop (Mudd never uttered the words "bailout" or "rescue") in case that kind of lack of confidence and that kind of jitteriness continued for too long."
Saturday, September 13, 2008
September 13, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SOME REAL QUESTIONS FOR PALIN
I know, I know. Barack Obama is running against John McCain for President. But when you factor in McCain's age and health you have to consider Palin a contender for the presidency. She would be the "heartbeat away" from the Oval Office. Vice Presidential candidates should be vetted the same way as presidential candidates. And Palin, like McCain, is sorely lacking in the qualities we need to lead this country. We're in one of the most dangerous times in human history and the neocons who support McCain and Palin have been responsible for throwing a lighted match on the powderkeg. This column by Katha Pollitt is at www.thenation.com:
Count me as a feminist who never believed that being PTA president meant you could be, well, President. The more time we spend on dippy ruminations--how does she do it? Queen Bee on steroids or the hockey mom next door? how hot is Todd, anyway?--the less focus there will be on the kind of queries that should come first with any vice presidential candidate, and certainly would if Palin were a man. Questions like:
§ Suppose your 14-year-old daughter Willow is brutally raped in her bedroom by an intruder. She becomes pregnant and wants an abortion. Could you tell the parents of America why you think your child and their children should be forced by law to have their rapists' babies?
§ You say you don't believe global warming is man-made. Could you tell us what scientists you've spoken with or read who have led you to that conclusion? What do you think the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are getting wrong?
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
SOME REAL QUESTIONS FOR PALIN
I know, I know. Barack Obama is running against John McCain for President. But when you factor in McCain's age and health you have to consider Palin a contender for the presidency. She would be the "heartbeat away" from the Oval Office. Vice Presidential candidates should be vetted the same way as presidential candidates. And Palin, like McCain, is sorely lacking in the qualities we need to lead this country. We're in one of the most dangerous times in human history and the neocons who support McCain and Palin have been responsible for throwing a lighted match on the powderkeg. This column by Katha Pollitt is at www.thenation.com:
Count me as a feminist who never believed that being PTA president meant you could be, well, President. The more time we spend on dippy ruminations--how does she do it? Queen Bee on steroids or the hockey mom next door? how hot is Todd, anyway?--the less focus there will be on the kind of queries that should come first with any vice presidential candidate, and certainly would if Palin were a man. Questions like:
§ Suppose your 14-year-old daughter Willow is brutally raped in her bedroom by an intruder. She becomes pregnant and wants an abortion. Could you tell the parents of America why you think your child and their children should be forced by law to have their rapists' babies?
§ You say you don't believe global warming is man-made. Could you tell us what scientists you've spoken with or read who have led you to that conclusion? What do you think the 2,500 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are getting wrong?
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
September 09, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
PALIN THE RELIGIOUS WACKO
The First Amendment of the Constitution is the First Amendment for a very good reason. It provides for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. The "establishment" clause has been under constant assault by the religious right. They see no problem with government enforcement of their religious beliefs, especially in matters like abortion and school prayer. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, is about as far to the right as you can get and her ideas on religion are dangerous to our democracy. This column by Juan Cole is at www.commondreams.org:
Palin has a right to her religious beliefs, as do fundamentalist Muslims who agree with her on so many issues of social policy. None of them has a right, however, to impose their beliefs on others by capturing and deploying the executive power of the state. The most noxious belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should import into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so. That is the point of her pledge to shape the judiciary. Such a theocratic impulse is incompatible with the Founding Fathers' commitment to tolerance and democracy, which is why they forbade the government to "establish" or officially support any particular religion or denomination.
McCain once excoriated the Rev. Jerry Falwell and his ilk as "agents of intolerance." That he took such a position gave his opposition to similar intolerance in Islam credibility. In light of his more recent disgraceful kowtowing to the Christian right, McCain's animus against fundamentalist Muslims no longer looks consistent. It looks bigoted and invidious. You can't say you are waging a war on religious extremism if you are trying to put a religious extremist a heartbeat away from the presidency.
TRICKLE DOWN DOESN'T WORK
Even though he calls himself a "maverick," John McCain is offering the same old stale and failed policies of trickle down economics that started during the Reagan years. We're told over and over again that more tax cuts for the rich will produce wonders. What we get is more poverty, disappearing jobs, and massive deficits. The Bush administration should be offered as Trickle Down 101, the absolute and abject failure of the right-wing's free market ideology. This column by Dean Baker is at www.commondreams.org:
Senator McCain and his friends no doubt still believe that the economy's fundamentals are strong, but Friday's jobs numbers clearly show how bad things have gotten. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate reported for August is almost as high as the worst levels from the last recession. A broader measure of labor market weakness, that includes people who can only find part-time work or who have given up looking for jobs, is higher than at any point in the last recession.
When the labor market weakens, workers have less bargaining power with their employers. As a result, wages are trailing more than 2 percentage points behind inflation over the last year.
Wages are virtually the entire income for most workers. If the purchasing power of their wages falls by 2 percent, this is the equivalent of a 2 percentage point increase in their tax rate.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
PALIN THE RELIGIOUS WACKO
The First Amendment of the Constitution is the First Amendment for a very good reason. It provides for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. The "establishment" clause has been under constant assault by the religious right. They see no problem with government enforcement of their religious beliefs, especially in matters like abortion and school prayer. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, is about as far to the right as you can get and her ideas on religion are dangerous to our democracy. This column by Juan Cole is at www.commondreams.org:
Palin has a right to her religious beliefs, as do fundamentalist Muslims who agree with her on so many issues of social policy. None of them has a right, however, to impose their beliefs on others by capturing and deploying the executive power of the state. The most noxious belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should import into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so. That is the point of her pledge to shape the judiciary. Such a theocratic impulse is incompatible with the Founding Fathers' commitment to tolerance and democracy, which is why they forbade the government to "establish" or officially support any particular religion or denomination.
McCain once excoriated the Rev. Jerry Falwell and his ilk as "agents of intolerance." That he took such a position gave his opposition to similar intolerance in Islam credibility. In light of his more recent disgraceful kowtowing to the Christian right, McCain's animus against fundamentalist Muslims no longer looks consistent. It looks bigoted and invidious. You can't say you are waging a war on religious extremism if you are trying to put a religious extremist a heartbeat away from the presidency.
TRICKLE DOWN DOESN'T WORK
Even though he calls himself a "maverick," John McCain is offering the same old stale and failed policies of trickle down economics that started during the Reagan years. We're told over and over again that more tax cuts for the rich will produce wonders. What we get is more poverty, disappearing jobs, and massive deficits. The Bush administration should be offered as Trickle Down 101, the absolute and abject failure of the right-wing's free market ideology. This column by Dean Baker is at www.commondreams.org:
Senator McCain and his friends no doubt still believe that the economy's fundamentals are strong, but Friday's jobs numbers clearly show how bad things have gotten. The 6.1 percent unemployment rate reported for August is almost as high as the worst levels from the last recession. A broader measure of labor market weakness, that includes people who can only find part-time work or who have given up looking for jobs, is higher than at any point in the last recession.
When the labor market weakens, workers have less bargaining power with their employers. As a result, wages are trailing more than 2 percentage points behind inflation over the last year.
Wages are virtually the entire income for most workers. If the purchasing power of their wages falls by 2 percent, this is the equivalent of a 2 percentage point increase in their tax rate.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
September 07, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MCCAIN-PALIN WOULD BE A DISASTER
We learn today that the big mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been seized by the federal government. It's a part of the continuing subprime mortgage crisis that is a direct result of the deregulation policies of the Bush administration and the free market disciples who drive Republican economic policies. Even though John McCain calls himself a maverick, he has voted with Bush 90% of the time. If anything, Sarah Palin is even more a doctrinaire right-winger than McCain. Her Medieval beliefs on abortion and social policy should give us major pause because McCain's age and health may prevent his serving out his presidency. This column by Frank Rich is at www.nytimes.com:
Sarah Palin makes John McCain look even older than he is. And he seemed more than willing to play that part on Thursday night. By the time he slogged through his nearly 50-minute acceptance speech longer even than Barack Obama's - you half-expected some brazen younger Republican (Mitt Romney, perhaps?) to dash onstage to give him a gold watch and the bum's rush.
Still, attention must be paid. McCain's address, though largely a repetitive slew of stump-speech lines and worn G.O.P. orthodoxy, reminded us of what we once liked about the guy: his aspirations to bipartisanship, his heroic service in Vietnam, his twinkle. He took his often inaccurate swipes at Obama, but, in winning contrast to Palin and Rudy Giuliani, he wasn't smug or nasty.
The only problem, of course, is that the entire thing was a sham.
As is nakedly evident, the speech's central argument, that the 72-year-old McCain will magically morph into a powerful change agent as president, is a non sequitur. In his 26 years in Washington, most of it with a Republican in the White House and roughly half of it with Republicans in charge of Congress, he was better at lecturing his party about reform than leading a reform movement. G.O.P. corruption and governmental dysfunction only grew. So did his cynical flip-flops on the most destructive policies of the president who remained nameless Thursday night. (In the G.O.P., Bush love is now the second most popular love that dare not speak its name.)
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
MCCAIN-PALIN WOULD BE A DISASTER
We learn today that the big mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been seized by the federal government. It's a part of the continuing subprime mortgage crisis that is a direct result of the deregulation policies of the Bush administration and the free market disciples who drive Republican economic policies. Even though John McCain calls himself a maverick, he has voted with Bush 90% of the time. If anything, Sarah Palin is even more a doctrinaire right-winger than McCain. Her Medieval beliefs on abortion and social policy should give us major pause because McCain's age and health may prevent his serving out his presidency. This column by Frank Rich is at www.nytimes.com:
Sarah Palin makes John McCain look even older than he is. And he seemed more than willing to play that part on Thursday night. By the time he slogged through his nearly 50-minute acceptance speech longer even than Barack Obama's - you half-expected some brazen younger Republican (Mitt Romney, perhaps?) to dash onstage to give him a gold watch and the bum's rush.
Still, attention must be paid. McCain's address, though largely a repetitive slew of stump-speech lines and worn G.O.P. orthodoxy, reminded us of what we once liked about the guy: his aspirations to bipartisanship, his heroic service in Vietnam, his twinkle. He took his often inaccurate swipes at Obama, but, in winning contrast to Palin and Rudy Giuliani, he wasn't smug or nasty.
The only problem, of course, is that the entire thing was a sham.
As is nakedly evident, the speech's central argument, that the 72-year-old McCain will magically morph into a powerful change agent as president, is a non sequitur. In his 26 years in Washington, most of it with a Republican in the White House and roughly half of it with Republicans in charge of Congress, he was better at lecturing his party about reform than leading a reform movement. G.O.P. corruption and governmental dysfunction only grew. So did his cynical flip-flops on the most destructive policies of the president who remained nameless Thursday night. (In the G.O.P., Bush love is now the second most popular love that dare not speak its name.)
Friday, September 05, 2008
September 05, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE GOP EMPTY SUITS
Republicans offer war and more war, tax cuts for the rich, carte blanche for polluters, immigrant bashing, assaults on civil liberties and the Constitution, bigotry against anyone who's not white, male, and rich, and continued war on the working class. John McCain and Sarah Palin don't offer any positive change, just more of the same and maybe worse. Palin has been connected to the Dominionist movement, which would like to scrap the Constitution and make us live under Old Testament law. If the Taliban is your style, that might be appealing. This editorial is from The New York Times at www.nytimes.com:
Thursday night, Americans mainly saw the old John McCain. He spoke in a moving way about the horrors he endured in Vietnam. He talked with quiet civility about fighting corruption. He said the Republicans “had lost the trust” of the American people and promised to regain it. He decried “the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving” problems.
But there were also chilling glimpses of the new John McCain, who questioned the patriotism of his opponents as the “me first, country second” crowd and threw out a list of false claims about Barack Obama’s record, saying, for example, that Mr. Obama opposed nuclear power. There was no mention of immigration reform or global warming, Mr. McCain’s signature issues before he decided to veer right to win the nomination.
ENOUGH HYPOCRISY TO GAG A MAGGOT
Kris Kristofferson wrote the lyric that said, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." That's about what freedom means to the Republican party. While their lily white speakers talked up freedom inside the convention hall, protesters outside the hall got arrested on the slightest pretext. It's a little like the "free speech zones" that have followed George W. Bush throughout his presidency. This column by Dave Lindorff is at www.commondreams.org:
McCain's party, and his fundamentalist Christian backers, are always attacking efforts by gay Americans to win the right to marry by saying that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman, but clearly, with over half of all those marriages between a man and a woman ending in divorce, it's not all that sacred, and McCain is living testament to that hypocrisy.
But this was just the most blatant of a string of hypocrisies that ran on for four days in the Twin Cities.
There was the long list of speakers touting America's "freedoms" as, outside the convention hall, police thugs dressed in military gear, and armed with huge batons and assault weaponry were bashing in doors and terrorizing journalists, arresting others and dragging them face down along the street, using teargas against peaceful demonstrators and arresting them by the hundreds.
There was McCain talking about how everyone, including the "child of Latino immigrants," is an American, to an audience of Republicans that was so embarrassingly white that you had to shield your eyes from the glare of the screen.
There was Sarah Palin, complaining about a media focus on her pregnant 17-year-old daughter Bristol, all the while shamelessly parading that same daughter and her 18-year-old impregnator, who was dragged down to the convention to be shown off after the two had been somehow convinced to get married and make the baby "legal."
There were the repeated characterizations of McCain as a battler against corruption and the influence of "special interests," without a word of mention of his having been the recipient of over $100,000 in cash from Charles Keating, a corrupt banker whose interests McCain shamelessly pimped for in Congress, only narrowly escaping indictment himself.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
THE GOP EMPTY SUITS
Republicans offer war and more war, tax cuts for the rich, carte blanche for polluters, immigrant bashing, assaults on civil liberties and the Constitution, bigotry against anyone who's not white, male, and rich, and continued war on the working class. John McCain and Sarah Palin don't offer any positive change, just more of the same and maybe worse. Palin has been connected to the Dominionist movement, which would like to scrap the Constitution and make us live under Old Testament law. If the Taliban is your style, that might be appealing. This editorial is from The New York Times at www.nytimes.com:
Thursday night, Americans mainly saw the old John McCain. He spoke in a moving way about the horrors he endured in Vietnam. He talked with quiet civility about fighting corruption. He said the Republicans “had lost the trust” of the American people and promised to regain it. He decried “the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving” problems.
But there were also chilling glimpses of the new John McCain, who questioned the patriotism of his opponents as the “me first, country second” crowd and threw out a list of false claims about Barack Obama’s record, saying, for example, that Mr. Obama opposed nuclear power. There was no mention of immigration reform or global warming, Mr. McCain’s signature issues before he decided to veer right to win the nomination.
ENOUGH HYPOCRISY TO GAG A MAGGOT
Kris Kristofferson wrote the lyric that said, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." That's about what freedom means to the Republican party. While their lily white speakers talked up freedom inside the convention hall, protesters outside the hall got arrested on the slightest pretext. It's a little like the "free speech zones" that have followed George W. Bush throughout his presidency. This column by Dave Lindorff is at www.commondreams.org:
McCain's party, and his fundamentalist Christian backers, are always attacking efforts by gay Americans to win the right to marry by saying that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman, but clearly, with over half of all those marriages between a man and a woman ending in divorce, it's not all that sacred, and McCain is living testament to that hypocrisy.
But this was just the most blatant of a string of hypocrisies that ran on for four days in the Twin Cities.
There was the long list of speakers touting America's "freedoms" as, outside the convention hall, police thugs dressed in military gear, and armed with huge batons and assault weaponry were bashing in doors and terrorizing journalists, arresting others and dragging them face down along the street, using teargas against peaceful demonstrators and arresting them by the hundreds.
There was McCain talking about how everyone, including the "child of Latino immigrants," is an American, to an audience of Republicans that was so embarrassingly white that you had to shield your eyes from the glare of the screen.
There was Sarah Palin, complaining about a media focus on her pregnant 17-year-old daughter Bristol, all the while shamelessly parading that same daughter and her 18-year-old impregnator, who was dragged down to the convention to be shown off after the two had been somehow convinced to get married and make the baby "legal."
There were the repeated characterizations of McCain as a battler against corruption and the influence of "special interests," without a word of mention of his having been the recipient of over $100,000 in cash from Charles Keating, a corrupt banker whose interests McCain shamelessly pimped for in Congress, only narrowly escaping indictment himself.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
September 04, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
LYING: WHAT REPUBLICANS DO BEST
Republicans can't govern. Every time we get a Republican administration it's like swarms of locusts descending on a wheat field. You get massive tax breaks for the rich, a deterioration of public services, government tilted very much to the interest of big business, tax money diverted to the Republicans' fat cat friends, and more and more government intrusion into our personal lives.
Sarah Palin, as the scripture says, is new wine in an old wine bottle. She's just a version of Spiro Agnew or Dick Cheney in drag. She's very good at sarcasm and hate speech, but not much for any constructive vision for the country. I find it astonishing that McCain and his camp talk about "putting the country first." When have Republicans ever done that in the past few decades?
Richard Nixon's operatives probably derailed the peace talks to end the Vietnam war because ending the war would have won the election for Hubert Humphrey. Reagan's operatives sabotaged efforts to free the Iranian hostages. Jimmy Carter would probably have won reelection if the hostage situation had been resolved. In a "time of war" George W. Bush pushed through huge tax breaks for his rich friends. Such unmitigated gall is nauseating. This article by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:
Now, however, Palin has been transformed into a maverick reformer. McCain’s campaign even cites her experience as an abuser of the earmark process as part of the reason she supposedly understands why it must be scrapped.
McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said Palin’s successes in getting earmarked funds “was one of the formative experiences that led her toward the reform-oriented stance that she has taken as her career has progressed."
Nevertheless, Palin wrote in a newspaper column just this year that "the federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship." [For more details, see Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2008]
Beyond the GOP's reality-challenged speeches, there was the startling image of a nearly all-white convention – where only 36 of the 2,380 delegates were black, the smallest number in at least 40 years – rollicking in ridicule and bristling with animosity toward Obama, an African-American.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
LYING: WHAT REPUBLICANS DO BEST
Republicans can't govern. Every time we get a Republican administration it's like swarms of locusts descending on a wheat field. You get massive tax breaks for the rich, a deterioration of public services, government tilted very much to the interest of big business, tax money diverted to the Republicans' fat cat friends, and more and more government intrusion into our personal lives.
Sarah Palin, as the scripture says, is new wine in an old wine bottle. She's just a version of Spiro Agnew or Dick Cheney in drag. She's very good at sarcasm and hate speech, but not much for any constructive vision for the country. I find it astonishing that McCain and his camp talk about "putting the country first." When have Republicans ever done that in the past few decades?
Richard Nixon's operatives probably derailed the peace talks to end the Vietnam war because ending the war would have won the election for Hubert Humphrey. Reagan's operatives sabotaged efforts to free the Iranian hostages. Jimmy Carter would probably have won reelection if the hostage situation had been resolved. In a "time of war" George W. Bush pushed through huge tax breaks for his rich friends. Such unmitigated gall is nauseating. This article by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:
Now, however, Palin has been transformed into a maverick reformer. McCain’s campaign even cites her experience as an abuser of the earmark process as part of the reason she supposedly understands why it must be scrapped.
McCain spokesman Taylor Griffin said Palin’s successes in getting earmarked funds “was one of the formative experiences that led her toward the reform-oriented stance that she has taken as her career has progressed."
Nevertheless, Palin wrote in a newspaper column just this year that "the federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship." [For more details, see Los Angeles Times, Sept. 3, 2008]
Beyond the GOP's reality-challenged speeches, there was the startling image of a nearly all-white convention – where only 36 of the 2,380 delegates were black, the smallest number in at least 40 years – rollicking in ridicule and bristling with animosity toward Obama, an African-American.
Monday, September 01, 2008
September 01, 2008
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
IT'S ABOUT CRUELTY, NOT ABOUT LIFE
I've read about incidents in Islamic culture where rape victims get treated as criminals. The idea is that somehow the woman causes the man to commit rape. Now we learn that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has stated that if her daughter were impregnated by a rapist she would not approve of an abortion. That is almost mind-boggling in its cruelty, and it's very indicative of how Palin would stand on other social issues. It's also indicative of where McCain would stand. This item comes from www.ownthesidewalk.com:
Why did John McCain pick Sarah Palin as his running mate?
Because in a 2006 gubernatorial debate, Sarah Palin stated unequivocally that if her teenage daughter were impregnated by a rapist, Palin would not allow her to consider terminating the pregnancy.
Now, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about the relentlessly complex issue of abortion. But to many people who might potentially vote for John McCain over Barack Obama, it’s a good thing. And more importantly, it’s something John McCain can’t say himself.
IMPEACH BUSH
IMPEACH CHENEY
IT'S ABOUT CRUELTY, NOT ABOUT LIFE
I've read about incidents in Islamic culture where rape victims get treated as criminals. The idea is that somehow the woman causes the man to commit rape. Now we learn that GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has stated that if her daughter were impregnated by a rapist she would not approve of an abortion. That is almost mind-boggling in its cruelty, and it's very indicative of how Palin would stand on other social issues. It's also indicative of where McCain would stand. This item comes from www.ownthesidewalk.com:
Why did John McCain pick Sarah Palin as his running mate?
Because in a 2006 gubernatorial debate, Sarah Palin stated unequivocally that if her teenage daughter were impregnated by a rapist, Palin would not allow her to consider terminating the pregnancy.
Now, that’s either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about the relentlessly complex issue of abortion. But to many people who might potentially vote for John McCain over Barack Obama, it’s a good thing. And more importantly, it’s something John McCain can’t say himself.
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