February 23, 2008



IMPEACH BUSH



IMPEACH CHENEY



MCCAIN AND "INTEGRITY"


Senator John McCain, presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has advertised himself as a straight talker, ethical, and a man of integrity. His record belies that claim. McCain has been heavily involved with lobbyists. This story by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:



John McCain must hope that Americans won’t read the entire New York Times story about his friendship with a female lobbyist, because if they do, they’ll realize that his statement - that he “has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists” - simply isn’t true.


Though the article focuses on the friendship between the 71-year-old Arizona senator and Vicky Iseman, an attractive 40-year-old lobbyist for telecommunications companies, it also recounts McCain’s complicated history as both a violator of congressional ethics and a champion for ethics reform.



WINGERS MAY REAP WHAT THEY HAVE SOWN


The New Deal reforms passed under the administrations of FDR and Harry Truman and expanded under presidents Kennedy and Johnson ushered in the most prosperous time in American history. Since 1972 things have been going in reverse. We've gone into full throttle reverse during the administration of George W. Bush. Growing inequality, growing government corruption, and a lack of faith in the political and economic systems have set the stage for major upheavals. This article by Sara Robinson is at www.alternet.org:



And here we are again: Conservative policies have opened the wealth gap to Depression levels; put workers at the total mercy of their employers; and deprived the working and middle classes of access to education, home ownership, health care, capital, legal redress, and their expectations of a better future for their kids.


You can only get away with blaming this on gays and Mexicans for so long before people get wise to the game. And as the primaries are making clear: Americans are getting wise.Our current plutocratic nobility may soon face the same stark choice its English, French, and Russian predecessors did. They can keep their heads and take proactive steps to close the gap between themselves and the common folk (choosing evolution over revolution, as JFK counsels above). Or they can keep insisting stubbornly on their elite prerogatives, until that gap widens to the point where the revolution comes -- and they will lose their heads entirely.