20081224
Christopher
Cox - 
Corporate
- 
Government
- 
Accounting
- 
Law
- 
Investigation
- 
Politics
"SEC
Chair Asked If He Deserves Blame For Wall Street Crisis: ‘Absolutely Not,’
It ‘Wasn’t The SEC’s Job’." ... "In a new interview
with the Washington Post, embattled [Republican President Bush's] Securities
and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox stridently “defend[ed]
his restrained approach to the financial crisis.” He refused to accept
any blame for the Wall Street crisis or the Madoff Ponzi scheme, saying
that regulating Wall Street and protecting investors “wasn’t
the SEC’s job“:"
"Cox
argued that the agency has carefully defined responsibilities and that
it was unfair to blame it for every problem on Wall Street." ... "“The
public might not understand that that wasn’t the SEC’s job,” he said,
adding that the agency was not responsible for preventing investment banks
from collapsing but rather for sheltering their securities trading units
from problems in the broader corporation. “The SEC is not a safety and
soundness regulator,” he said. [..]"
"In
fact, the SEC’s mission statement clearly suggests that “safety”
is — or should be — a primary concern of the commission:"
"The
mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors,
maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."
"A
review by the SEC inspector general “determined the
agency’s monitoring of the five biggest Wall Street firms, which included
Bear Stearns, was lacking.” (Just a few days before Bear Stearns collapsed,
Cox said he had “a good deal of comfort” in the bank’s capital levels.)
Another analysis showed that the SEC dramatically cut its oversight of
financial trades. “In one of its core areas — regulation of Wall Street
firms — its
case load was down significantly,” said Ben A. Indek, a securities
lawyer at the law firm that performed the analysis." ... "Cox also denied
any culpability in the Madoff scandal: “When Cox was asked whether he should
be blamed for a culture of lax enforcement that allowed multiple warnings
about the fraud to go undetected, he
said: ‘Absolutely not.’” However, a former SEC official slammed Cox
for failing to prevent the Ponzi scheme: “I
can’t comprehend how a well-run investigation would have missed a fraud
of this magnitude,” said Lynn Turner, a former SEC chief accountant." -By
Ali
Frick -ThinkProgress.org
20081223
Health
- 
Military
- Lawsuit
- 
KBR
- Corporate
- Politics
- 
Unsafe
- 
Ice
-
IN
- 
US
- 
Iraq
"Soldiers
Accuse KBR Of Knowingly Exposing Troops To Deadly Toxin In Iraq."
... "Controversial military contractor KBR has racked up quite a record
of endangering the lives of U.S. [United States] soldiers serving in Iraq.
Over the years, the former Halliburton subsidiary has been accused of everything
from giving troops ice tainted with “traces
of body fluids and putrefied remains” to ignoring warnings of unsafe
wiring that led
to troop deaths." ... "Earlier this month, attorneys for 16 members
of the Indiana National Guard filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging
that they “knowingly
exposed the soldiers to a cancer-causing toxic chemical.” In a special
report last night, CBS News revealed that KBR knew of the toxic exposure
to hexavalent chromium long
before it informed the guardsmen:"
"Now
CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger
months before the soldiers were ever informed." ... "Depositions from
KBR employees detailed concerns about the toxin in one part of the plant
as early as May of 2003. And KBR minutes, from a later meeting state “that
60 percent of the people … exhibit symptoms of exposure,” including bloody
noses and rashes." ... "Gentry says it wasn’t until the last day of
August in 2003 - after four long months at the facility - that he was told
the plant was contaminated."
WATCH:
"KBR Accused In Toxic Scandal" via -CBSNews
"After
receiving a briefing on the case on Monday, [Indiana Democratic Senator]
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN [Democratic-Indiana]) told CBS that “KBR
has a lot to answer for“:"
"“Look,
I think the burden of proof at this point is on the company,” Bayh said.
“To come forward and very forthrightly explain what happened, why we should
trust them, and why the health and well-being of our soldiers should continue
to be in their hands.”"
"In
a statement to CBS, the company denied all charges, saying, “We deny the
assertion that KBR harmed troops and was responsible for an unsafe condition.”
According to CNN, “an
estimated 275 American soldiers may have been exposed to the chemical”
at the KBR water plant, “over a period of months through mid- to late-2003.”"
-By Matt
Corley -ThinkProgress.org
20081219
Christopher
Cox - Corporate
- Government
- Accounting
- Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
"Who's
Mess Is the S.E.C.? News Analysis:
In his extraordinary mea culpa over the Madoff scandal, [Republican President
Bush's Securities and Exchange Commission] S.E.C. chairman Christopher
Cox accepted full blame...on behalf of his staff. But isn't he in charge?"
... "When Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox made
an extraordinary apology for the agency having failed to follow up on clear
evidence of wrongdoing by suspected financial fraudster Bernard Madoff,
he excluded one key player from blame: himself." ... "In the public
statement on Tuesday, Cox laid out a blistering attack on his staff,
while appearing to exonerate himself from any responsibility." ... "He
said the agency's most senior officials learned only a week ago that "credible
and specific allegations regarding Mr. Madoff's financial wrongdoing, going
back to at least 1999, were repeatedly brought to the attention of S.E.C.
staff, but were never recommended to the Commission for action."" ... ""I
am gravely concerned," Cox added, "by the apparent multiple failures over
at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations or at any
point to seek formal authority [from the commission] to pursue them.""
... "Cox's decision to distance himself from the staffs' performance has
rankled former senior S.E.C. officials who had nothing to do with the Madoff
inquiries." ... "The S.E.C. is structured so that the chairman personally
is in charge of the staff, these former agency officials said; he is in
effect the agency's C.E.O. [Chief Executive Officer], with division heads
reporting directly to him, and he makes decisions about staff appointments
and allocation of resources." ... "As Condé Nast Portfolio
magazine reported
in its October issue, Cox took steps to weaken and hamstring the enforcement
division." ... "He slowed down and delayed approval when staff members
did ask for formal authority to investigate, and pressed the agency to
focus more on penny-stock scams, boiler-room operations, and other relatively
petty crimes. S.E.C. veterans said this detracted from efforts to pursue
major Wall Street frauds." -By Scot Paltrow
-Portfolio.com
Chris
Cox - Corporate
- Government
- Accounting
- Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
- 
California
- 
New
York
"Cox
"Worked to Dismantle The SEC," Says Commission Vet."
... "In recent years, particularly under [Republican President Bush's Securities
and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris] Cox, a former California GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican] congressman, the SEC has pursued a policy of de-emphasizing
enforcement, part of the broader anti-regulatory philosophy of the Bush
years -- helping to make Madoff, and perhaps others like him, possible."
... ""[Cox] in many ways worked to dismantle the SEC," Ed Nordlinger, a
former longtime enforcement director in the commission's New York office,
told TPMmuckraker. "He slowed everything down. I don't think he believed
in heavy regulation."" ... "That view has been echoed by several others
in a position to know. Ross Albert told TPMmuckraker for a post
published yesterday: "Under Cox, SEC had de-emphasized the enforcement
program. Cox worshipped at the same altar of de-regulation that the rest
of the Bush administration worshipped at."" ... "And a former enforcement
division supervisor told Portfolio for a lengthy
October story about the SEC under Cox: "It was like someone poured
molasses on the enforcement division."" ... "The commission also appears
to have passed over for promotion staff members who were too aggressive
in their approach to enforcement. Veteran S.E.C. lawyer James Coffman told
Portfolio
that he was told he didn't get a promotion because he was "too tough."
He left the SEC soon after." -By Zachary Roth
-TPMMuckracker
.TalkingPointsMemo
Chris
Cox - Money
- Accounting
- Politics
- New
York
"Paul
Krugman: The Madoff economy." ... "The pay system
on Wall Street lavishly rewards the appearance of profit, even if that
appearance later turns out to have been an illusion." ... "Consider the
hypothetical example of a money manager who leverages up his clients' money
with lots of debt, then invests the bulked-up total in high-yielding but
risky assets, such as dubious mortgage-backed securities. For a while -
say, as long as a housing bubble continues to inflate - he (it's almost
always a he) will make big profits and receive big bonuses. Then, when
the bubble bursts and his investments turn into toxic waste, his investors
will lose big - but he'll keep those bonuses." ... "We're talking about
a lot of money. In recent years the finance sector accounted for 8 percent
of America's GDP [Gross Domestic Product], up from less than 5 percent
a generation earlier. If that extra 3 percent was money for nothing - and
it probably was - we're talking about $400 billion a year in waste, fraud
and abuse. But the costs of America's Ponzi era surely went beyond the
direct waste of dollars and cents." ... "At the crudest level, Wall Street's
ill-gotten gains corrupted and continue to corrupt politics, in a nicely
bipartisan way. From [Republican President] Bush administration officials
like Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission,
who looked the other way as evidence of financial fraud mounted, to Democrats
who still haven't closed the outrageous tax loophole that benefits executives
at hedge funds and private equity firms (hello, [New York Democratic] Senator
Schumer), politicians have walked when money talked." -By
Paul
Krugman -IHT.com
20081218
Dick
Cheney - Criminal
- Torture
- War
Crimes -Prisons
- Law
- Military
- 
Intelligence
- Politics
- Corporate
-
Media
- US
- Iraq
"If
Bush and Cheney Commit War Crimes and Everyone Knows It, But Does Nothing,
Are They Still Crimes?" ... "As Jon Ponder noted
here on Tuesday, a bi-partisan U.S. [United States] Senate panel has
found
[PDF] that [Republican President] George W. Bush was responsible for
approving War Crimes (torture and abuse) at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq,
[Republican Vice President] Dick Cheney admitted
in a recent interview to helping to approve War Crimes (torture and abuse)
in interrogations, and the corporate media --- with the lone exception
of MSNBC --- have been virtually as silent on what may be the most offensive
crimes ever committed by an Executive Branch in the U.S. as they were during
the lead-up to and follow-through on the War on Iraq, when those same officials
sent our nation into war on the basis of demonstrable lies." ... "George
Washington University's highly-respected constitutional law professor Jonathon
Turley, noting the War Crimes now known and admitted to by Bush and Cheney,
asked Keith Olbermann Tuesday night, "If someone commits a crime and everyone's
around to see it and does nothing, is it still a crime?"" ... "During the
discussion, Turley mentioned --- no less than three different times ---
that it'll be up to the citizens whether or not any action is actually
taken to prosecute those who committed these crimes." ... ""It will ultimately
depend on citizens, and whether they will remain silent in the face of
a crime that's been committed in plain view," Turley suggested. "It is
equally immoral to stand silent in the face of a war crime and do nothing,
and that is what the citizens are doing."" ... "He went on to argue: "There's
this gigantic yawn as we hear about a war crime on national television
being discussed matter-of-factly by the Vice President."" -By
Brad
Friedman -BradBlog.com
WATCH
"Countdown: Jonathan Turley and Bush Admin War Crimes."
-Keith Olbermann via -FireDogLake'sYouTube
Barack
Obama - Gay
- Politics
- Religion
- 
Book
- 
People
- 
Children
- 
Girls
- 
Schools- US
- 
Pakistan
- Palestine
- 
British
- 
Soviet
- Military
- 
History
"Three
Cups of Tea for Rick Warren." ... "Rick Warren is
providing the invocation for the [Democratic President Elect Barack Obama's]
presidential inauguration. As a pastor whose books have been read by tens
of millions of Americans and whose voice is respected by an equal or larger
number, he has tremendous influence and power. And as an open homophobe
who aggressively works to wound gay people in this country (as well as
pretty much anybody else who doesn’t believe with his own particular and
peculiar recently-invented version of Christian theology) he should be
the guy with the bull’s-eye on his back for the progressive movement."
... "But consider that metaphor for a moment. In Pakistan there are entire
regions filled with people who not only hate gays but hate Americans as
well, regardless of religion. We've tried bombing them (as the Soviets
did, and the British before them). Three consecutive Western empires have
tried threatening them, starving them, poisoning them, infiltrating them,
and overpowering them - all without success." ... "And then Greg Mortenson
came to one of their villages, had three cups of tea with them (a metaphor
for hospitality - they nursed him back to health after a mountain climbing
injury - and the title of his best-selling book), and now in dozens of
these formerly Taliban-controlled villages the people are rejecting the
Taliban, embracing modernity, and openly proclaiming themselves as our
friends." ... "His "weapon" for this conversion? He built schools for their
children, particularly their previously-banned-from-school girls." ...
"We pushed the Palestinians on the West Bank to have open and democratic
elections, assuming that because they were using the tool of our culture
(the secret ballot) they’d vote in people reflecting the values of our
culture. Instead, they voted in Hamas, a group that is openly hostile to
us and our allies. Hamas’ “weapon” for winning the hearts and minds of
the Palestinians? They supported schools, hospitals, and fed and clothed
people." ... "You’d think that we’d have learned from these experiences
- particularly those of us who call ourselves “progressives” - that you
get your desired results faster when you embrace, engage, and nurture your
“enemies” than when you physically or rhetorically bomb them." ... "Barack
Obama has learned that lesson, and is applying it in inviting Rick Warren
to perform the invocation for his inauguration. In doing so, he is reaching
out a hand to those who today are - out of fear and ignorance - pushing
away gays the same way their intellectual ancestors pushed away African
Americans when anti-miscegenation laws were supported by most of these
same “fundamentalist” Christian churches in the 1950s and 1960s." -By Thom
Hartmann -ThomHartmann.com
20081217
Poll
- Financial
- Consumer
- 
Job
- 
Rent
- Federal
- Debt
- History
"New
Poll Shows 63% Are Already Hurt by Downturn." ...
"The deepening recession has eroded the financial standing and optimism
of a broad swath of Americans, nearly two-thirds of whom say that they
have been hurt by the downturn and that the country has slipped into long-term
economic decline." ... "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll also found
that a rapidly increasing share of Americans -- 66 percent, up from just
over half a year ago -- are worried about maintaining their standard of
living. Nearly two in 10 said they or someone living in their household
had lost a job in the past few months, and more than a quarter said they
had their pay or hours reduced. And 15 percent said that at some point
in the past year they fell behind on their rent or mortgage." ... "The
poll captures the widening fallout from the faltering economy that policymakers
are struggling to contain. The Federal Reserve yesterday cut its target
for the federal funds rate to a range of zero to 0.25 percent, the lowest
on record." ... "The poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans support
new federal spending to stimulate the economy, and majorities of both Democrats
and Republicans back the idea." ... "Twenty-four percent approve of the
way [Republican] President Bush is handling the economy, and a similarly
paltry 23 percent approve of the broader federal response to the crisis."
... "Democrats, Republicans and independents alike are highly critical
of the federal action to address the crisis -- among each group, more than
seven in 10 disapprove. In part, the criticisms stem from skepticism that
the government has put in place adequate controls to avoid waste and fraud
in the use of federal money in the economic recovery effort." (1, 2)
-By Michael A. Fletcher and Jon Cohen with contributions
by Jennifer Agiesta -WashingtonPost
Government
- Market
- Politics
- US_Debt
- 
Technology
- Housing
"Fed
unleashes greatest bubble of all." ... "Like the
sorcerer’s apprentice, [Republican President Bush's] Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben Bernanke and his predecessor Alan Greenspan have unleashed a series
of ever-larger asset bubbles they cannot control." ... "Now the Fed’s decision
to cut interest rates to between zero and 0.25 percent, coupled with a
promise to keep them there for an extended period, and the threat to conduct
even more unconventional operations in the longer-dated Treasury market
risks the biggest bubble of all, this time in U.S. government debt." ...
"THE ASYMMETRIC EXPERIMENT" ... "Bubble mania is no accident. It
is the direct consequence of the Fed’s asymmetric response to shifts in
asset prices. Pressed to “lean against the wind” and adopt counter-cyclical
interest rate and credit policies in the asset market, senior Fed policymakers
have repeatedly demurred." ... "Led by Bernanke and Greenspan, officials
have argued it is too hard and subjective to identify bubbles until afterwards,
and not the Fed’s job to second-guess asset allocation decisions of professional
investors." ... "Even if bubbles could be identified, they argue, pricking
them would require swingeing rate rises that would inflict widespread damage
on the rest of the economy." ... "Far less damaging to allow asset markets
to follow their natural cycle and stand by to cut interest rates sharply,
supply liquidity and contain the fallout when the bubble bursts." ... "But
the Fed’s asymmetric policy response to rising and falling asset prices
(colloquially known as the “Greenspan/Bernanke put”) directly led to much
of the excessive risk-taking which has humbled the financial system over
the last eighteen months." ... "More importantly, the Fed’s decision to
respond to the collapse of the technology and stock market bubble by lowering
rates to 1 percent and holding them there for an extended period is now
widely accepted as a mistake that contributed to the bond bubble and subsequent
housing market boom in the middle of the decade." ... "If the low-rate
strategy was a mistake, it was a conscious one." -By
John
Kemp-Reuters
20081216
Mitch
McConnell - 
Bob
Corker - 
Richard
Shelby - 
Foreign
- Money
- Government
- Politics
- 
Auto
- 
Makers
- Working
- People
- 
Kentucky
- 
Tennessee
- 
Alabama
- 
Michigan
- US
"Do
Southern Senators Really Want to Start a New War Between the States?"
... "When my Southern pals used to say "The South is gonna rise again,"
I doubt this is what they had in mind: A cadre
of Southern [Republican] Senators, heavily financed by foreign automakers
and special interests, declaring war on the American Dream of good wages
and decent benefits. When did they decide that hard-working people trying
to make a better life for themselves are the enemy?" ... "These Senators
may want to think twice. Southern states have been benefiting from Northern
taxes for years. If they start another War Between the States, the Federal
gravy train might suddenly stop at the Mason-Dixon line." ... "Studies
by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation have consistently shown that these Senators'
states receive far more from the Federal government than they pay back
in taxes. That's an irony that could lead to some Blue State bitterness:
They love to preach about fiscal responsibility and lower taxes, but they
keep dipping their beak into the Federal trough." ... "I believe the applicable
Southern phrase is "a handful of gimme and a mouthful of much obliged.""
... "The numbers in [PDF]
the Foundation's most recent study (warning: pdf) speak for themselves:
[Kentucky Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell's Kentucky took in $1.45
from the Feds for every dollar it paid in taxes. That's a 45 cent free
ride. [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker's Tennessee received at
30-cent Federal giveaway. And [Alabama Republican Senator] Richard Shelby's
Alabama extracted a whopping 71-cent subsidy from Northern taxpayers."
... "What about Michigan? They lost 31 cents for every dollar they paid.
In other words, McConnell, Shelby, and Corker have been skimming a percentage
off these autoworkers' taxes for years on behalf of their constituents.
Now, when the same Michigan taxpayers need help, these Senators are telling
them to get lost." -By RJ
Eskow -HuffingtonPost.com
20081213
Bob
Corker - Richard
Shelby - 
Jim
DeMint -Mitch
McConnell - Foreign
- Money
- Politicians
- Auto- Makers
- Michigan
-US
- Workers
- Emergency
- Law
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- 
South
Carolina - 
Georgia
- 
Japanese
- 
German
- 
South
Korean
"Meet
the GOP's [Republican's] wrecking crew: Why did a
small group of Southern Republicans turn the auto bailout into a demolition
derby? Introducing the senators who hate unions and love foreign cars."
... "On July 15, [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker was a happy
man." ... ""I cannot think of a more exciting day, even more so than Election
Night, for me," the Republican senator from Tennessee said in a conference
call that day. The reason for his elation was the announcement that
[German automaker] Volkswagen, lured by up to $500 million worth of incentives
from the state government, had agreed to build a $1 billion plant near
Chattanooga, Tenn. [Tennessee.] That is, not just in his home state, but
in the suburbs of the city he once served as mayor." ... "Add VW [Volkwagen]
to [Japan automaker] Nissan, which already has two plants and its North
American headquarters in Tennessee, and you begin to see why Corker was
so aggressive this month about trying to block -- or at least dramatically
rewrite -- a proposal to float billions of dollars in
emergency
loans to domestic automakers. Most of the focus during this debate
has been on lawmakers who represent Michigan, the home of the Big Three
-- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. But Corker represents the other side
of the coin: Tennessee and other Southern states have recently come to
depend on foreign automakers and their non-union factories. If you're from
those parts, what's good for American car companies may no longer be what's
good for the country -- because your economy now depends on their foreign
competitors instead." ... "Expect to hear more not just from the very vocal
Bob Corker, but from the rest of a core group of Southern senators whose
bread is buttered by the Japanese, Germans and Koreans. Here's a guide
to the major players."
"[Alabama
Republican Senator] Richard Shelby, R-Ala. [Republican-Alabama]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [German automaker] Mercedes-Benz, [South Korean automaker]
Hyundai, [Japanese automaker] Honda"
"[South
Carolina Republican Senator] Jim DeMint, R-S.C. [Republican-South Carolina]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [German automaker] BMW [Bayerische Motoren Werke]"
"[Kentucky
Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. [Republican-Kentucky]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [Japanese automaker] Toyota"
"[Tennessee
Republican Senator] Bob Corker, R-Tenn. [Republican-Tennessee]"
"Foreign
auto plants: Two [Japanese automaker] Nissan plants, as well as the
company's U.S. [United States] headquarters; [German automaker] Volkswagen
will open near Chattanooga [Tennessee] in 2011"
"As
mayor of Chattanooga, he [Corker] reportedly conceived the idea for the
site that will soon become home to the [German automaker] Volkswagen plant,
and was instrumental in its development. He organized efforts to lure [Japanese
automaker] Toyota to the area, and when that failed, he had VW execs [executives]
and other top state politicians over to his house for dinner." ... "Georgia's
two Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson, both voted
against the plan as well. Their state has a big [South Korean automaker]
Kia factory coming in soon." (1, 2)
-By Alex Koppelman and Mike Madden with contributions
by Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant -Salon
Barack
Obama - Housing
- Crisis
- Investors
- Politics
- New
York
"HUD
pick foresaw subprime crisis in '04." ... ""[Democratic
President Elect] Barack Obama's pick for HUD [Housing and Urban Development]
-- former New York City [New York] Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan --
was one of the earliest public officials to foresee the magnitude and destructive
capacity of the subprime crisis." ... "In the middle of 2004, I sat down
with Donovan (I was at Newsday at the time) for a chat about [Democratic
New York City, New York] Mayor Michael Bloomberg's initiative to tackle
the shortage of low- and middle-income housing in the city." ... "To my
surprise, Donovan brushed aside my questions about the city's initiatives
and began talking at length about the coming "flood" of foreclosures he
anticipated among highly leveraged apartment buildings purchased by recent
immigrants -- and a looming subprime crisis for one- and two-family homeowners
in up-and-coming neighborhoods in southeast [New York City burroughs] Queens
and central Brooklyn." ... "I left the meeting a little shaken: At the
time housing prices in previously depressed parts of the city were booming
and the city had been able to sell off almost of all its once-massive stock
of foreclosed properties to private owners and investors. The future looked
bright to almost everyone -- but not to Donovan, who was planning for the
looming disaster." -By Glenn Thrush
-Politico.com
20081212
Mitch
McConnell - Bob
Corker - Richard
Shelby - Auto
- Makers
- Workers
-Lawmakers
- Politics
- Kentucky
- Alabama
- Tennessee
"Machinists
Union Blames McConnell, Shelby and Corker for Killing Auto Rescue Plan."
... "The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
(IAM) today rejected attempts by a trio of Senate Republicans to deny responsibility
for their campaign to force General Motors, Chrysler and Ford into bankruptcy
and possible liquidation." ... ""In a move worthy of Benedict Arnold, a
handful of Senate Republicans this week successfully conspired to deny
federal aid to [United States] U.S. automakers," said IAM International
President Tom Buffenbarger. "It ranks second only to their attempt to blame
autoworkers themselves for failing to provide sufficient concessions to
satisfy GOP [Republican] demands."" ... "The campaign to blame autoworkers
began immediately after the effort by [Kentucky Republican Senator] Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Alabama Republican [Senator] Sen. Richard
Shelby and Tennessee Republican [Senator] Bob Corker to block the $14 billion
aid package for automakers." ... ""With the U.S economy on the brink of
a deep and prolonged recession, it is unthinkable that these lawmakers
would deliberately kill an effort that could save as many as three million
American jobs," said Buffenbarger."
GoIAM.org
Barack
Obama - Media
- Politics
-Investigation
- History
- 
Illinois
"Media
Matters: Media pick up where they left off 8 years ago."
... "To anyone who lived through the media feeding frenzy of the 1990s,
during which the nation's leading news organizations spent the better part
of a decade destroying their own credibility by relentlessly hyping a series
of non-scandals, the past few days, in which the media have tried to shoehorn
[Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama into the [Illinois Democratic
Governor] Rod Blagojevich scandal, have been sickeningly familiar." ...
"Whenever reporters think -- or want you to think -- they've uncovered
a presidential scandal, they waste little time in comparing it to previous
controversies." ... "Perhaps the most striking aspect of the media's attempts
to link Obama to the Blagojevich scandal has been the volume of news reports
that are purely speculative -- and not only speculative, but vaguely
speculative. That is, they don't even consist of conjecture about specific
potential wrong doing. They simply consist of completely baseless speculation
that Obama might in some way become caught up in the investigation at some
point in the future, for some reason. It's little more than, "Maybe Obama
will be involved." Well, sure. And maybe he'll play shortstop for
the Washington Nationals [baseball team] next year." ... "If you want to
make a "scandal" stick to someone despite the inconvenient truth that they
aren't actually guilty of the purported wrongdoing in question, one thing
you do -- if you're the media covering a Democratic president, or an overzealous
conservative -- is continually expand the scandal's definition. So the
"scandal" grows and evolves into an amorphous mass of innuendo as political
opponents and journalists begin throwing everything against the wall, hoping
something will stick." ... "If the news media regains a bit of the skepticism
so many of them set aside for the past eight years, that would be an unequivocally
good thing, and it should be applauded." ... "But this week brought signs
that much of the media is set to resume the absurd and shameful behavior
that defined the 1990s -- guilt by association, circular analysis whereby
they ask baseless questions about non-scandals, then claim they have to
report on the "scandal" because the White House is "besieged by questions,"
grotesque leaps of logic, downplaying exculpatory information, and too
many other failings to list." ... "If that happens -- if the media continue
to behave as they did in covering Whitewater -- they will damage the country.
It's really that simple. We cannot afford to be distracted from serious
problems by overheated conjecture and baseless insinuation masquerading
as journalism." ... "That's how the media behaved the last time we had
a Democratic president. They devoted wall-to-wall coverage to invented
"scandals," ignored exculpatory evidence, saw evidence of guilt everywhere,
took people out of context in order to accuse them of lying, and generally
behaved like a pack of wild animals who couldn't tell right from wrong
or truth from fiction -- or who simply didn't care. As a group, they behaved
without ethical standards and without regard for the truth." ... "It's
our responsibility -- all of us -- to make sure it doesn't happen again."
-By Jamison
Foser -MediaMatters.org
20081211
Auto
- Manufacturing
- Politics
-Jobs
- Economic
- History
- 
Christmas
- Consumer
- US
- 
China
"Senate
Republicans Determined to Cause a Depression by Destroying Big 3."
... "Looks like the Senate Republicans are serious about killing the auto
deal. Here's the bottom line, if GM [General Motors] goes down, it
will take Ford and Chrysler with it, because the three of them share suppliers.
Losing GM's business will put most of them into the red. 80%
of American consumers will not buy a car from a company in bankruptcy,
so the idea that going bankrupt is the solution to the auto companies woes
is nonsense." ... "What comes out of any bankruptcy, even if they have
the names GM, Ford and Chrysler, will be a shadow of what went into bankruptcy—assuming
anything comes out at all. More likely would be that big chunks would
be gobbled up by foreign car companies, especially by the Chinese, who
want expertise, but not to make cars in the US [United States]." ... "We
can expect, then, to lose most o f the three million jobs related to the
auto industry if the Big 2 1/2 go under. To put this in perspective,
in the last year the US has lost 2.7 million jobs. This would be
more than the job losses for an entire (lousy) year. The
US lost half a million jobs last month, and almost every economic forecaster
expects the US to lose even more jobs in January, when retailers go fish-belly
up due to an abysmal Christmas retail season." ... "Economic contractions
of this sort are self-reinforcing. The more people who lose their
jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less consumer spending
there is, the less money businesses make. The less money businesses
make, the more they have to lay off people. The more people who lose
their jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less... but
why go on, you get the point." ... "The cascading financial and economic
effect will make the oncoming economic storm far, far worse. If 700
billion was ok to use to save Wall Street, whose business model was probably
even worse than Detroit's (add up their losses and most of Wall Street
didn't actually make any money for the last ten years), then 15 or 25 billion
to save Detroit is peanuts." ... "Or we can make sure this turns into a
Depression. Guess the Republicans playing Scrooge this Christmas
prefer that." -By Ian
Welsh -FireDogLake.com
David
Vitter - Mitch
McConnell - Bob
Corker - Foreign
- Money
- Politicians
- Auto
- Manufacturing
- Work
- 
Louisiana
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
- 
Pennsylvania
- US
- Japan
- Germany
"My
Foreign Investor, Right Or Wrong." ... "A bunch of
Southern-state Republicans (including, amazingly, ... [Louisiana Republican
Senator] David
Vitter), from right-to-work states, want to push GM [General Motors]
and Chrysler into bankruptcy to bolster the foreign auto presence in their
home states. Kentucky has a Ford factory but they also have a [Japanese]
Toyota plant in Georgetown [Kentucky], so [Kentucky Republican Senator
Mitch] McConnell's on board." ... "Last week, Jane Hamsher explained
the conflict of interest for [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker
in Tennessee:"
"He
hasn't mentioned the subsidies his own state of Tennessee has given to
,
making it harder for the Big 2 1/2 to compete:"
"Tennessee
offered its richest incentive package — and perhaps the most government
assistance and tax breaks ever for an American automobile plant — to lure
[German auto manufacturer] Volkswagen to Chattanooga [Tennessee]."
"But
the state’s chief business recruiter said Wednesday that the benefits from
VW’s $1 billion assembly plant far will exceed what could top $500 million
in government assistance and tax breaks for the project."
"“The
Volkswagen investment in this community is going to have a tremendous economic
gain for the entire region,” said Matt Kisber, Tennessee’s commissioner
for economic and community development. “I’m confident we’re going to have
a very reasonable incentive package when you look at the initial costs
of what is being offered compared with a much bigger long-term return.”"
"Yes,
that's the logic -- these incentives will bring more money to the region
than they cost. But it doesn't always work out that way. As David Cay Johnston
noted
in Free Lunch, these kinds of subsidies frequently wind up costing
communities much more than they ever make back:"
"Johnson
writes: "The tribute Cabela's demanded from Hamburg [Pennsylvania] amounted
to roughly $8,000 for each man, woman, and child in town." Johnson points
out that between 2004 and 2006, Cabela's earned $223.4 million. During
those years, it collected at least $293.7 million in subsidies, more than
its reported profits. Meanwhile a family business selling fishing and hunting
gear was driven out of business in Hamburg."
"Funny
nobody is mentioning this."
The
GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] does a lot of chest-thumping about
"Country First" and patriotism. It's fun to watch them destroy American
manufacturing so they can keep Japanese and German corporate executives
happy. OK, maybe not so fun." -By D-Day
via Hullabaloo
20081210
John
Boehner
- 
Don
Young - 
Doc
Hastings - 
Jack
Abramoff - 
Tom
DeLay - 
Jerry
Lewis - 
Ken
Calvert - 
John
Doolittle - 
Ohio
- 
AK
- 
WA
-
Texas
- CA
- 
Florida
- Money
- Politics
- US
Attorney - Law
- Federal
- Investigation
"House
GOP [Republicans] Gives Scandal-Ridden Don Young’s Committee Seat To Scandal-Ridden
Doc Hastings." ... " ... [Ohio Republican Representative
and House Minority Leader John Boehner told Alaska Republican Representative]
Rep. Don Young (R-AK [Republican-Alaska]) that he could no longer support
him as ranking Republican on the Natural Resources Committee, leading to
Young’s resignation from the post." ... "The AP reports
that a panel of top House leaders picked [Washington state Republican Representative]
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA [Republican-Washington]) today to lead the committee.
“The recommendation by the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Steering
Committee is final under a rule change adopted Wednesday.”" ... "Recall,
Jack Abramoff once boasted of having an “excellent
relationship” with Hastings, who received $14,000
[*]
from Abramoff’s firm, Preston Gates — including $1,000 from Abramoff himself.
After taking control of the Ethics Committee, Hastings reportedly fired
two staff lawyers involved in unanimous decisions to admonish
[Texas Republican] Tom DeLay for improper fundraising. Hastings also
contacted fired [United States] U.S. Attorney John McKay and attempted
to pressure
him in an ongoing investigation." ... "As ThinkProgress has documented,
Boehner has a history of playing musical chairs with committee assignments
for corrupt members:"
"[California
Republican Representative] Rep. Jerry Lewis: Boehner ruled that
Rep. Jerry Lewis of California could continue as the ranking member on
the Appropriations Committee while under federal
investigation on ethics charges."
"[California
Republican Representative] Rep. Ken Calvert: The GOP Steering Committee
appointed Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA[ Republican-California]) to [California
Republican Representative] Rep. Jon Doolittle’s (R-CA[ Republican-California])
Appropriations seat, after Doolittle was the subject of an FBI [Federal
Bureau of Investigation] investigation for his ties to Abramoff. Calvert
has profited
from legislation he supported and was caught
in the act with a prostitute."
"[Florida
Republican Representative] Rep. Tom Feeney: Feeney, who was questioned
by the FBI over his relationship with Abramoff took over as GOP [Republican]
leader on the space subcommittee for Calvert."
"Despite
Boehner’s ethics pledge
after ethics pledge,
the culture of corruption still rules at the end of the day." -By
Satyam
Khanna -ThinkProgress.org
Barack
Obama - Illinois
- Money
- Legislation
- Media
- Politics
"Obama's
support of ethics reform is good news for the GOP [GOP=Republican Party]...."
... "Seriously, I'm trying to get my arms around this
new story on the Blagojevich scandal that the New York Times [by Mike McIntire
and Jeff Zeleny] has put out there. The lede of the article is tantalizing:"
"In
a sequence of events that neatly captures the contradictions of [Democratic
President Elect] Barack Obama’s rise through Illinois politics, a phone
call he made three months ago to urge passage of a state ethics bill indirectly
contributed to the downfall of a fellow Democrat he twice supported, [Illinois
Democratic Governor] Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich."
"Mr.
Obama placed the call to his political mentor, Emil Jones Jr., president
of the Illinois Senate. Mr. Jones was a critic of the legislation, which
sought to curb the influence of money in politics, as was Mr. Blagojevich,
who had vetoed it. But after the call from Mr. Obama, the Senate overrode
the veto, prompting the governor to press state contractors for campaign
contributions before the law’s restrictions could take effect on Jan. 1,
prosecutors say."
"OK,
so what I'm getting from that is that Barack Obama supports ethics in government,
that he doesn't think state contractors should be making large campaign
contributions. Hey, that's a good thing, right?" ... "Right?" ... "Uh,
according to the New York Times, not necessarily:"
"Beyond
the irony of its outcome, Mr. Obama’s unusual decision to inject himself
into a statewide issue during the height of his presidential campaign was
a reminder that despite his historic ascendancy to the White House, he
has never quite escaped the murky and insular world of Illinois politics.
It is a world he has long navigated, to the consternation of his critics,
by engaging in a kind of realpolitik, Chicago-style, which allowed him
to draw strength from his relationships with important players without
becoming compromised by their many weaknesses."
""Beyond
the irony of its outcome..."? Huh? How about...beyond the irony of the
fact that an Obama phone call for an ethics reform bill -- strongly opposed
by none other than Rod Blagojevich -- is an excuse to somehow tie him to
the "murky" world of Chicago politics. Look (as Obama himself might say),
there's some interesting new information in this Times article, but their
basic perspective is all upside-down wrong." ... "Did it occur to them
that maybe Obama was elected 44th president of the United States exactly
because he HAS escaped "the murky and insular world of Illinois politics"?
When people ask why would someone like Obama involve himself in Chicago
politics, the bottom line is Chicago is where he lived -- he moved there
to organize laid-off steelworkers, got a job there and then even married
a Windy City native." -Philly.com
-By
Will Bunch
Terrorism
- Criminal
- Political
- History
- Corporate
- Religion
-Prison
- 
Pat
Robertson - Abortion
- Gay
- Rights
- Law
- California
- Texas
-US
- Iraq
- Military
"Bush
Awards Presidential Citizen Medal To Watergate Crook Chuck Colson."
... "Established in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal is the second
highest honor for a civilian, recognizing Americans “who have performed
exemplary
deeds of service for the nation.”" ... "Today, [Republican] President
Bush honored 24 recipients of this year’s award, including actor Gary Sinise
and Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. Also included in that mix was
Chuck Colson, “the first member of the [Republican President] Nixon administration
to serve
prison time for Watergate-related offenses.” Colson was President Nixon’s
counsel from 1969-1973 and pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice.
Colson received a one to three year sentence, but served just seven months.
David Plotz at Slate described Colson’s role in the Nixon administration:"
"As
special counsel to the president, he [Chuck Colson] was [Republican President]
Richard Nixon’s hard man, the “evil genius” of an evil administration.According
to Watergate historian Stanley Kutler, Colson sought to hire Teamsters
thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators, and he plotted to raid or firebomb
the Brookings Institution. He eventually pleaded guilty to scheming to
defame Daniel Ellsberg and interfering with his trial."
"Since
that time, Colson has become an evangelical prison reformer, running the
nonprofit Prison Fellowship, which advocates for “privately run prisons
and the delivery of all social services by faith-based groups.” However,
according to author Allan Lichtman in “White Protestant Nation,” Colson
has also remained involved in conservative politics:"
"Colson
brought together politically conservative Catholics and Protestands for
a statement of common beliefs, advised conservative politicians including
Texas [Republican] governor George W. Bush, and worked with Christian right
leaders Pat Robertson and James Dobson on the development of political
strategy. He disseminated conservative messages on sex roles, abortion,
homosexuality, pornography, gay rights, and separation of church and state
in his radio broadcasts and columns, reaching millions of Americans."
"On
October 3, 2002, Colson was also one of the co-signers of a letter
from prominent evangelical leaders supporting an invasion of Iraq. More
recently he has spoken out in favor of California’s Prop. 8, accusing the
LGBT community of “anti-religious bigotry.”" -By Amanda
Terkel -ThinkProgress.org
20081209
Barack
Obama -Poll
- History
"Poll:
79% approve of way Obama is handling transition."
... "Seventy-nine percent approve of [Democratic President-Elect Barack]
Obama's performance so far during transition, with 18 percent disapproving."
... "Obama's approval rating is 14 points higher than the approval rating
for [Republican] President-elect George Bush in 2001 and 17 points higher
than [Democratic] President-elect Clinton's rating in 1992, CNN Polling
Director Keating Holland said." ... "Obama's current approval rating is
also more than 50 points higher than President Bush's current approval
rating, which now stands at 28 percent --- with 71 percent disapproving
of the way Bush is handling his job as president." ... ""An Obama job approval
rating of 79 percent -- that's the sort of rating you see when the public
rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said Bill Schneider,
CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration
was a national disaster."" -By Paul Steinhauser
-CNN
20081208
John
McCain - Corporate
- Politics
- 
Arizona
"Merrill
Chief Wants $10-Million Bonus For Presiding Over $11-Billion Loss."
... "Merrill has lost almost $12 billion this year, and is about to be
taken over by Bank of America. Its shares have fallen fom $50 when Thain
took over late last year to $13.04 at close of trading Friday." ... "It
looks like Thain -- who was a major fundraiser for [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] John McCain's campaign
and was described
by USA Today as a member of McCain's "team" -- is a practitioner
of the bargaining strategy in which you begin with a maximalist offer as
a starting point for negotiation:"
"A
few months ago, when the board began seriously considering 2008 bonuses,
a proposal was presented to the compensation committee by Merrill that
Mr. Thain should be paid in excess of $30 million, according to people
familiar with the matter. That number has since come down in recent talks
with various board members and Mr. Thain has recently indicated to committee
members that $5 million to $10 million is more reasonable." [-WSJ]
"
-By Zachary Roth -TPMMuckracker
.TalkingPointsMemo
Stephen
Johnson - Religion
- Science
- Corporate
- 
Environmental
- Politician
- 
RI
"EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson: There’s ‘not a clean-cut division’ between
religion and science." ... "A Philadelphia Inquirer
profile
of [Republican President Bush's Environmetnal Protection Agency] EPA Administrator
Stephen
Johnson this weekend reveals that the chief steward of our environmental
protection is unwilling — or unable — to separate religion from science.
The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson notes that, when questioned by reporters,
Stephen Johnson admitted he does not see a “clean-cut
division” between the two:"
"It’s
not a clean-cut division. If you have studied at all creationism vs.
evolution, there’s theistic or God-controlled evolution and there’s variations
on all those themes."
"Johnson’s
approach at EPA has been marked by putting his faith in corporate polluters.
This past summer, [Rhode Island Democratic Senator] Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-RI [Democratic-Rhode Island]) called on him to
resign. Read more at the Wonk
Room [Stephen Johnson]." -By Faiz
Shakir -ThinkProgress.org/Wonk
Room
20081205
John
McCain - 
Sarah
Palin -
Fashion
- Money
- Politics
-2008
Election
"It's
not cheap to look like a real American." ... "In
just a little over two months, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
John McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee together spent
a total of almost $340,000 on [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential
Candidate] Sarah Palin's appearance, including clothes for her and her
family." ... "The final total comes in the wake of disclosure reports filed
with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. First, there was the
$150,000 on clothes for the Palin family that sparked the initial interest
and controversy in this spending. On top of that, the disclosures show
that, overall, Palin's makeup artist was paid $68,400, while her hair stylist
got more than $42,000. Her fashion stylist recieved
$54,900. In addition to that, as previously
reported, there are new charges for clothing for the vice-presidential
candidate and her family, which come out to about $23,000." -By
Alex
Koppelman -Salon
20081203
Health
Care - Politics
- Economics
- 
Seniors
- Labor
Unions - Lawyers
- Government
"Health-Care
Reform Could Kill the GOP." ... "Can policy be both
wise and aggressively partisan? Ask any Republican worth his salt and the
answer will be an unequivocal yes. Ask a Democrat of the respectable Beltway
variety and he will twist himself into a pretzel denying it." ... "For
decades Republicans have made policy with a higher purpose in mind: to
solidify the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party= Republican] base or to damage the
institutions and movements aligned with the other side. One of their fondest
slogans is "Defund the Left," and under that banner they have attacked
labor unions and trial lawyers and tried to sever the links between the
lobbying industry and the Democratic Party. Consider as well their long-cherished
dreams of privatizing Social Security, which would make Wall Street, instead
of Washington, the protector of our beloved seniors. Or their larger effort
to demonstrate, by means of egregious misrule, that government is incapable
of delivering the most basic services." ... "That these were all disastrous
policies made no difference: The goal was to use state power to achieve
lasting victory for the ideas of the right." ... "On the other side of
the political fence, strategic moves of this kind are fairly rare. Instead,
for most of my lifetime, prominent Democratic leaders have been chucking
liberalism itself for the sake of immediate tactical gain." ... "Former
[Democratic] President Bill Clinton, who is widely regarded as a political
mastermind, may have sounded like a traditional liberal at the beginning
of his term in office. But what ultimately defined his presidency was his
amazing pliability on matters of principle. His most memorable innovation
was "triangulating" between his own party and the right, his most famous
speech declared and end to "the era of big government," his most consequential
policy move was to cement the consensus on deregulation and free trade,
and many of his boldest stands were taken against his own party." ... "The
results were not pretty, either for the Democrats or for the nation." ...
"Still, conservatives have always dreaded the day that Democrats discover
(or rediscover) that there is a happy political synergy between delivering
liberal economic reforms and building the liberal movement. The classic
statement of this fear is a famous memo that [Republican] Bill Kristol
wrote in 1993, when he had just started out as a political strategist and
the Clinton administration was preparing to propose some version of national
health care." ... ""The plan should not be amended; it should be erased,"
Mr. Kristol advised the GOP. And not merely because Mr. Clinton's scheme
was (in Mr. Kristol's view) bad policy, but because "it will revive the
reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the
generous protector of middle-class interests."" -By
Thomas
Frank -HuffingtonPost.com
20081121
Electric
- Cars
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Technology
- 
Transportation
- 
Infrastructure
- Jobs
- Consumer
- Military
- Historic
- San
Francisco - Sacramento
- California
- Michigan
- 
Oregon
- Washington
- US
- Global
- 
Planet
- 
Climate
- 
Emissions
"Recharge
America with Electric Cars." ... "Today, our country
is facing a set of seemingly insurmountable problems:"
"•
an economic meltdown of historic proportions"
"•
a car industry crashing, because of a lack of innovation and growth"
"•
oil dependence transferring our wealth abroad"
"•
an extended military presence in the Middle East"
"•
and climate change, which threatens the health of our planet"
"Yesterday,
joined by San Jose [California] Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland [California]
Mayor Ron Dellums I [San Francisco, California's mayor Gavin Newsom] announced
a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric
Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S. [United States]" In support of this initiative
Better
Place, a global electric transportation company announced that it would
enter the U.S. market with California as its first state, beginning in
the Bay Area." ... "Commercial availability of electric cars is targeted
to begin in 2012, and Better Place estimates its network investment in
the Bay Area will total $1 billion when the system is fully deployed. I
welcomed Better Place's announcement and anticipate many other EV companies
will focus on the Bay Area as a top-priority market." ... "Electric vehicles
represent an overarching, game-changing solution that allows us to transform,
and recharge the American transportation sector for the 21st century. By
accelerating the conversion of the car industry from its oil dependent
past, to a new electric century, we can jump start the car industry, eliminate
our dependence on oil, reduce our required presence in the middle east,
create millions of jobs, and eliminate a significant portion of our CO2
emissions." ... "This plan ties together a triangle of influence that can
get our nation back on track: Detroit [Michigan] car makers who know how
to scale production, working in concert with San Francisco's culture of
innovation, aided by Sacramento [California's capital] and Washington DC
[America's capital] policy-making. The goal is to create a sustainable
strategic advantage for the US instead of a series of bailouts." ... "As
California prepares to launch this electric recharge infrastructure project,
it can also serve as a blueprint for a more widely integrated solution."
... "California can generate upwards of $2.5B in new investment in jobs
and the economy for the infrastructure effort, with billions more in cars
and battery sales to consumers. The nation as a whole can trigger tens
of billions in infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation investment.
At the same time, this conversion reduces the cost to the consumer and
nation per mile we drive. California, followed by the western US states
of Oregon and Washington are ready to drive this effort." -By
Gavin
Newsom -HuffingtonPost.com
20081119
Economics
-History
- Politics
"Amity
Shlaes strikes again." ... "When you hear claims
that the New Deal made the depression worse, they often come directly or
indirectly from the work of Amity Shlaes, whose misleading statistics have
been widely disseminated on the right." ... "Now, Ms. Shlaes has found
a new target: John Maynard Keynes. There’s a lot to critique in this
piece, but this one takes the cake:"
"But
the most telling fact about the new rush to spend is that its advocates
have insisted on invoking the New Deal. They tend to gloss over the period
when the phrase, “We are all Keynesians now,” was actually first uttered:
the mid-1960s. (Uttered by Friedman, in fact, though he meant only that
we all work in the terms of the Keynesian lexicon.)"
"The
Great Society of that period was the ultimate Keynesian experiment, and
it didn’t work very well."
"Grr.
Keynesianism says that deficit spending can help create jobs when the economy
is depressed. The Great Society wasn’t deficit spending, it wasn’t intended
to create jobs, and the economy of the 1960s wasn’t depressed. It was social
engineering; we can talk about how well or badly it worked, but it had
nothing whatsoever to do with Keynesian economics. "
-By
Paul
Krugman/Blog
-NYTimes
Lawmakers
- Politics
- Auto
- Makers
-Industry
- Union
"Union
busting is the real motivation." ... "The same lawmakers
who were okay with handing over tens of billions of dollars to white collar
execs at AIG and in the mortgage industry are now balking at saving hundreds
of thousands of American blue collar jobs via a similar handout to the
auto industry. Instead, the chorus is growing - particularly among conservatives
- calling for automakers to declare bankruptcy and throw themselves on
the mercy of the court." ... "This possibility has anti-labor activists
and pundits practically beside themselves with glee, as they see forced
bankruptcy as a backdoor route to union busting. That's because in a bankruptcy
filing, all union contracts could be terminated at the discretion of the
trustee overseeing the proceeding." ... "Of course, unions have already
made significant concessions in recent years, in an attempt to
save members' jobs and America's legacy industry. And the same people who
want to see a union autoworker earning 50K a year make less in salary,
and pay more for his health insurance don't seem that concerned about the
fact that the
white-collar management at these companies continues to earn obscene salaries,
even as the companies they lead are dying. (When management earns ever-increasing
salaries even as the performance of their companies tanks, that's not capitalism,
and it's got nothing to do with unions.)" ... "Bailout may not be the right
answer for our auto industry. But fair discussion of the issue is impossible
when the real motivation for some legislators is not what's best for the
American economy, but their not-so-secret desire to kill off the American
labor movement." -By Katie
Allison Granju -KnoxNews.com
20081116
Obama
- Government
- Law
- Enforcement
- Markets
- Accounting
-History
- 
Enron
- 
Eliot
Spitzer - New
York - US
- Global
"How
to Ground The Street: The Former 'Enforcer' On the
Best Way to Keep Financial Markets in Check." ... "[Democratic] President-elect
Barack Obama will soon face the extraordinary task of saving capitalism
from its own excesses, much as [Democratic President] Franklin D. Roosevelt
had to do 76 years ago. Up until this point in the crisis, policymakers
have appropriately applied the rules of triage -- Band-Aids and tourniquets,
then radical surgery -- to keep the global financial system alive. Capital
infusions, bailouts, mega-mergers, government guarantees of unimaginable
proportions -- all have been sought and supported by officials and corporate
chief executives who had until now opposed any government participation
in the marketplace. But put aside for the moment the ideological cartwheel
we have seen and look at the big picture: The rules of modern capitalism
have been re-written before our eyes." ... "The new president's team must
soon get to the root causes of the mistakes that have brought us to the
economic precipice. Yes, we have all derided the explosion of leverage,
the failure to regulate derivatives, the flood of subprime lending that
was bound to default and the excesses of CEO [Chief Executive Officer]
compensation. But these are all mere manifestations of three deeper structural
problems that require greater attention: misconceptions about what a "free
market" really is, a continuing breakdown in corporate governance and an
antiquated and incoherent federal financial regulatory framework." ...
"First, we must confront head-on the pervasive misunderstanding of what
constitutes a "free market." For long stretches of the past 30 years, too
many Americans fell prey to the ideology that a free market requires nearly
complete deregulation of banks and other financial institutions and a government
with a hands-off approach to enforcement. "We can regulate ourselves,"
the mantra went." ... "Those of us who raised red flags about this were
scoffed at for failing to understand or even believe in "the market." During
my tenure as New York state attorney general, my colleagues and I sought
to require investment banking analysts to provide their clients with unbiased
recommendations, devoid of undisclosed and structural conflicts. But powerful
voices with heavily vested interests accused us of meddling in the market."
... "When my office, along with the Department of Justice, warned that
some of American International Group's reinsurance transactions were little
more than efforts to create the false impression of extra capital on the
company's balance sheet, we were jeered at for attacking one of the nation's
great insurance companies, which surely knew how to balance risk and reward."
... "And when the attorneys general of all 50 states sought to investigate
subprime lending, believing that some lending practices might be toxic,
we were blocked by a coalition of the major banks and the [Republican President]
Bush administration, which invoked a rarely used statute to preempt the
states' ability to probe." ... "No major market problem has been resolved
through self-regulation, because individual competitive behavior doesn't
concern itself with the larger market. Individual actors care only about
performing better than the next guy, doing whatever is permitted -- or
will go undetected. Look at the major bubbles and market crises. Long-Term
Capital Management, Enron, the subprime lending scandals: All are classic
demonstrations of the bitter reality that greed, not self-discipline, rules
where unfettered behavior is allowed." ... "Those who truly understand
economics, as did Adam Smith, do not preach an absence of government participation.
A market doesn't exist in a vacuum. Rather, a market is a product of laws,
rules and enforcement. It needs transparency, capital requirements and
fidelity to fiduciary duty. The alternative, as we are seeing, is anarchy."
(1, 2)
-By Eliot L. Spitzer -WashingtonPost
20081115
Corporate
- 
Television
- Media
- Politics
"If
it’s Sunday, it’s still conservative." ... "In 2006,
Media Matters conducted a study on Sunday political talk shows, finding
that “Republicans and conservatives
have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows
— in some cases, dramatically so.” From 2001 to 2005, conservative guests
outnumbered progressives “by 58 percent to 42 percent.” Atrios notes that
tomorrow’s shows will also be dominated by conservative
guests:"
"7
Appearances by Republican current elected officeholders"
"3
Appearances by Democratic current elected officeholders."
"2
Appearances by Republican former elected officeholders."
"1
Appearance by a [Republican President] Bush Cabinet Secretary."
"T.
Boone Pickens [former Republican swift boat contributor]"
"Ted
Turner. "
"
-ThinkProgress.org
20081114
Political
- Corporate
- Television
- Media
- Michigan
- 
Massachusetts
- New
York - Arizona
- Georgia
- Louisiana
- Alabama
"More
Muscle." ... "TPM Reader RS ..."
"Here
is something progressives really need to address. On Sunday morning political
shows, three Democrats are confirmed as guests: [Michigan Democratic Senator]
Carl Levin, [Massachusetts Democratic Representative] Barney Frank, and
[New York Democratic Representative] Charlie Rangel. It's as if Democrats
didn't just win huge electoral advances in the Presidential, House, and
Senate elections. So we get the same thing we've had the past 8 years--republican
hegemony on Sunday. [Arizona Republican Senator Jon] Kyl? Check. [former
Georgia Republican Representative Newt] Gingrich? Check. [Republican Michael]
Steele? Check. [Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby] Jindal and [Alabama
Republican Senator Richard] Shelby? Check and check? Just look at The Page
for the whole list. When is the "liberal media" going to give some of the
oxygen to Democrats?"
"This
is unquestionably true. The bookers and producers of the Sunday shows are
committed to the continuing dominance of conservative/Republican marquee
guests. No question about it. And this is going to be one part of the rewiring
of Washington that will take longer and face more resistance than possibly
any other. The big interests and institutions that go to Washington to
buy influence are quickly reacting to the changing political complexion
of the city. The TV bookers and opinion act like nothing's happened." -By
Josh Marshall .TalkingPointsMemo
20081112
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - 2008
Election - Politics
- Alaska- Arizona
"What
Just Happened." ... "Despite all the grief she's
gotten, I continue to think that the selection of [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor] Sarah Palin as [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] John McCain's running
mate represents the breaking of a consensual cultural barrier far more
fundamental than most people realize. It's not just that she was inexperienced
(Spiro Agnew and John Edwards weren't much more experienced than Palin
when they ran for VP) but that she was — obviously, transparently, completely
— uninterested in and uninformed about national policy at nearly every
level. We've simply never seen someone so completely unmoored from
the normal requirements of national office before. She was chosen purely
at the level of celebrity, and an awful lot of people seemed to be just
fine with that." ... "Via email, here's an excerpt from Wolf Blitzer's
interview today with Palin:"
"BLITZER:
Another question. What are your new ideas on how to take the Republican
Party out of this rut that it’s in right now? Give me one or two new ideas
that you’re going to propose to these governors who have gathered here
in this hotel."
"PALIN:
Well, a lot of Republican governors have really good ideas for our nation
because we’re the ones there on the front lines being held accountable
every single day in service to the people whom have hired us in our own
states and the planks in our platform are strong and they are good for
America. It’s all about free enterprise and respecting the ..."
"BLITZER:
Does that mean you want to come up with a new Sarah Palin initiative that
you want to release right now."
"PALIN:
Gah! Nothing specific right now. Sitting here in these chairs that I’m
going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on
the front lines are forced to and it’s our privileged obligation to find
solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held
accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present
every once in a while, we don’t get away with that. We have to balance
budgets and we’re dealing with multibillion dollar budgets and tens of
thousands of employees in our organizations."
"Should
I laugh or should I cry?" -By Kevin
Drum -MotherJones.com
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - 2008
Election - Media
- Politics
- Alaska
- Arizona
"Why
Palin Still Matters." ... "Let's be real in a way
the national media seems incapable of: this person [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin] should never
have been placed on a national ticket in a mature democracy. She was incapable
of running a town in Alaska competently. The impulsive, unvetted selection
of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world,
as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in
modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade
of normalcy for two months - and not to declare the whole thing a farce
from start to finish - is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the
Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual
utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling.
46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as
president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural
"identity". Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be able
to prevent it from happening again. And we have to find a way to prevent
this from recurring." ... "It happened because [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] John McCain is an incompetent
and a cynic and reckless beyond measure. To have picked someone he'd only
met once before, without any serious vetting procedure, revealed McCain
as an utterly unserious character, a man whose devotion to the shallowest
form of political gamesmanship trumped concern for his country's or his
party's interest." ... "It was a final product of the now-exhausted strategy
of fomenting fundamentalist resentment to elect politicians dedicated to
the defense of Israel and the extension of American military hegemony in
every corner of the globe. Palin was the reductio ad absurdum of this mindset:
a mannequin candidate, easily controlled ideologically, deployed to fool
and corral the resentful and the frightened, removed from serious scrutiny
and sold on propaganda networks like a food product." ... "This deluded
and delusional woman still doesn't understand what happened to her; still
has no
self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations.
She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths
with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged;
she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance
as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her - but more
excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her." ... "Her candidacy,
in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible."
-By Andrew Sullivan
-TheAtlantic.com
Barack
Obama - Race
- Terrorism
- Religion
- Politics
- 
Idaho
"Idaho
students chant 'assassinate Obama' on school bus: Report."
... "Madison County, Idaho was once dubbed "the reddest place in America"
by Salon, but that didn't make it any less shocking when elementary school
children allegedly started chanting "assassinate Obama" on the school bus."
... "According to an article
which appeared in Salon in 2006, "You've heard of Jesusland, but Rexburg,
Idaho, is something more. It's not just a small town in rural Eastern Idaho.
It's a small town in rural Eastern Idaho completely dominated by a fast-growing
Mormon college, Brigham Young University-Idaho."" ... "The full KIDK story
can be read here."
-By David Edwards and Muriel Kane-RawStory.com
WATCH:
Report by KIDK on Idaho elementary school children allegedly chanting "assassinate
Obama."
20081110
Barack
Obama - Economics
- History
- Federal
- Politics
- Social
Security - Health
Care
"Franklin
Delano Obama?" ... "Suddenly, everything old is New
Deal again. [Republican President] Reagan is out; F.D.R. [Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Democratic President] is in. Still, how much guidance does the
Roosevelt era really offer for today’s world?" ... "The answer is, a lot.
But [Democratic President-Elec] Barack Obama should learn from F.D.R.’s
failures as well as from his achievements: the truth is that the New Deal
wasn’t as successful in the short run as it was in the long run. And the
reason for F.D.R.’s limited short-run success, which almost undid his whole
program, was the fact that his economic policies were too cautious." ...
"About the New Deal’s long-run achievements: the institutions F.D.R. built
have proved both durable and essential. Indeed, those institutions remain
the bedrock of our nation’s economic stability. Imagine how much worse
the financial crisis would be if the New Deal hadn’t insured most bank
deposits. Imagine how insecure older Americans would feel right now if
Republicans had managed to dismantle Social Security." ... "Can Mr. Obama
achieve something comparable? Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s new chief of staff,
has declared that “you don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste.” Progressives
hope that the Obama administration, like the New Deal, will respond to
the current economic and financial crisis by creating institutions, especially
a universal health care system, that will change the shape of American
society for generations to come." ... "But the new administration should
try not to emulate a less successful aspect of the New Deal: its inadequate
response to the Great Depression itself." ... "Now, there’s a whole intellectual
industry, mainly operating out of right-wing think tanks, devoted to propagating
the idea that F.D.R. actually made the Depression worse. So it’s important
to know that most of what you hear along those lines is based on deliberate
misrepresentation of the facts. The New Deal brought real relief to most
Americans." -By
Paul
Krugman -NYTimes
20081109
Radio
-
- Opinion
- Politics
-People
- 2008
Election - Obama
- Government
- Retirement
- Money
"Right-wing
media feeds its post-election anger." ... "... [M]any
on the losing end of last week's [2008] election want to hold on to their
anger. And there are those in the media -- led by the likes of [radio talker
Rush] Limbaugh and [Fox tv talker Sean] Hannity -- only too ready to feed
that animus, along with their own ratings." ... "In a time when the nation
calls out for cool leadership and rational discussion, Limbaugh stirs the
caldron, a tendency he proved in a particularly grotesque way last week
when he accused Obama's party of plotting a government takeover of 401(k)
retirement plans." ... ""They're going to take your 401(k), put it in the
Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is," Limbaugh woofed.
"Trust fund, my rear end."" ... "A slight problem with Limbaugh's report:
Obama and the Democrats have proposed no such thing." ... "To broadcast
such a report -- so drained of context as to constitute a lie -- would
be a shameless act at any time. But Limbaugh needlessly stirred the fears
of the millions he holds in his thrall -- making the 401(k) thievery sound
like nearly a done deal. Shameless." -By James Rainey
-LAtimes
20081108
Barack
Obama -John
Boehner
- 
Karl
Rove - 2008
Election - Media
- Politics
- Corporate
- Healthcare
- Ohio
- US
- Iraq
- Global
- Climate
"Sunday
Roundup." ... "In the wake of [2008 Election Democratic
President-Elect Barack] Obama's overwhelming victory, and Democratic gains
in the House and Senate, conservatives are desperately trying to convince
the world that these results are meaningless. "Democrats should not make
the mistake of viewing Tuesday's results as a repudiation of conservatism,"
insisted
[Ohio Republican Representative] John Boehner. "Barack Obama understands
this is a center-right country,"
claimed
Karl Rove. "This country remains every bit as center-right as it has for
a generation," parroted
Brent Bozell. And David Brooks dreamed
of an Obama administration that understands "this was an election where
the middle asserted itself." Drunk on self-delusion, a staggering GOP whistles
past the electoral graveyard, missing the whole point of this election:
the center
has shifted, and positions that used to be considered "left-wing" --
on healthcare, on global warming, on corporate responsibility, on Iraq
-- are now solidly mainstream." -By Arianna
Huffington -HuffingtonPost.com
20081104
Dick
Cheney - Opinion
- Politics
- History
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election
"In
2008, will media recall 2004 declarations of Bush "mandate"?
Summary: [Republican] President Bush was re-elected in 2004 with 286 electoral
votes, the smallest popular-vote margin since 1976 (excluding the 2000
election) and the lowest electoral vote count for an incumbent president's
re-election since 1916. Nevertheless, many in the media were quick to echo
[**] [Republican]
Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that "the nation" gave Bush "a mandate."
It remains to be seen whether the media will apply the same standard in
assessing the results of the 2008 election." -By S.S.M.
-MediaMatters.org
20081103
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Sarah
Palin - 2008
Election - Economy
- Politics
- War
- US
-Iraq
- World
"Francis
Fukuyama." ... "I’m voting for Barack Obama [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] this November for a very simple
reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of
[Republican] George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary
war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world
in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is
presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader
economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule,
democracies don’t work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable
for failure. While John McCain [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate]
is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with
the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans
for failure on such a grand scale." ... "McCain’s appeal was always that
he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has
seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] as a running mate was highly irresponsible;
we have suffered under the current president who entered office without
much knowledge of the world and was easily captured by the wrong advisers.
McCain’s lurching from [Republican President] Reaganite free- marketer
to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles
at all." -By Francis Fukuyama
-AmConMag.com
20081101
Halloween- Politics
- John
McCain - Barack
Obama - 2008
Election -Michigan
- Kids
"McCain
Supporter Denies Candy To Children Of Obama Supporters On Halloween (VIDEO)."
... "Kids in this suburban Detroit [Michigan] neighborhood cried foul after
a [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain supporter
refused to give them candy because they were the children of [2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama supporters." -By
Nicholas Graham -HuffingtonPost.com
WATCH:
"Michigan McCain-Palin supporter says no treats for Obama kids on Halloween."
20081029
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - 2008
Election - 2012
Election - Politics
"Palin's
2012 talk leaves McCain aide speechless." ... "[2008
Election Republican] Vice presidential contender Sarah Palin told ABC in
an interview to air Thursday that she's not going to leave national politics
if she doesn't enter the White House in January, fueling speculation that
she's considering running for President in 2012." ... "CNN's Dana Bash
told cohort Wolf Blitzer that a senior [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate John] McCain advisor was rendered "speechless" by Palin's comment.
"There was a long pause, and then I just heard a 'Huh.' on the other end
of the phone. I mean, this is certainly not a surprise to anybody who has
watched Sarah Palin that she is interested in potentially...a future national
run. Certainly she is being urged to by a lot of people inside the Republican
Party if they do lose."" ... "[Alaska Republican Governor] Gov. Palin has
already been called a "diva" and "rogue" by people within the McCain campaign
who see her straying
from prescribed narrative in her speeches, having "lost confidence in most
of the people on the plane."" -By Nick Cargo and David
Edwards -RawStory.com
20081022
Sarah
Palin - 
Jeff
Larson - Karl
Rove - John
McCain - 
Norm
Coleman - Money
- Fashion
- Apartment
- Politics
- 
Minnesota
- 2008
Election
"Sarah
Palin’s Personal Shopper." ... "The attention from
Jeanne Cummings’s much-talked-about
Politico
story has naturally focused on the $150,000 in luxury clothing purchased
for [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin
at Neiman Marcus, Sak’s Fifth Avenue, and Barney’s. What hasn’t yet gotten
any attention is who bought it for her. But buried in the same FEC [Federal
Election Commission] disclosure form that revealed Palin’s taste for the
fine life is the name of the man who appears to have been her personal
shopper: Jeff Larson." ... "Under FEC regulations, the RNC must file what
is called a “Schedule
F form,” which lists “expenditures made by political committees or
designated agents(s) on behalf of candidates for federal office.”" ...
"Larson is the [Republican operative] Karl Rove protégé who’s
a principal in the robocalling firm of FLS Connect (the “FLS” stands for
Tony Feather, Jeff Larson, and Tom Syndhorst, all veteran Republican political
operatives). Larson’s firm is the same one that launched the scurrilous
robocalls against John McCain in 2000, and that McCain has now hired to
make robocalls connecting Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. He’s also well known
in Minnesota for leasing
his basement apartment at a steeply discounted rate to embattled [Minnesota]
Republican Senator Norm Coleman." -By Joshua
Green -TheAtlantic.com
20081020
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Military
- Politics
- 2008
Election - AZ
- 
Nevada
- 
VA
- TX
- US
- Iraq
- 
Afghanistan
- 
Vietnam
- History
"McCain
Lies Again, Repeats False Claim He ‘Received The Highest Honor And Awards’
From Every Vets Group." ... "Yesterday, [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) held a telephone town hall meeting, in which
“thousands” of Nevadans — according to the McCain campaign — called to
listen in. Among some of the hostile,
pointed, and critical questions came one from a veteran, who challenged
McCain on his voting record regarding funding for the Veterans Administration
and veterans’ priorities:"
"Q:
I know you voted for lesser increases, and sometimes they were so much
less, and our VA desperately needs the money. Can you tell me why you
would vote for less money for the VA when there’s a war going on?"
"M:
Well of course I have not and I’m afraid I’ve been endorsed by the VFW
in every election that I’ve been in. I have been — received the honors,
the highest honor and awards from all our veterans organizations for my
consistent support of them. I don’t know what you’re looking at, but
the DAV, the VFW, the American Legion, all of them have given me their
highest awards for my consistent support of them."
"As
ThinkProgress has repeatedly
[-] documented,
McCain is either willfully lying or he is delusional about his record —
and the meaning of “highest awards.” In fact, McCain has recently stood
on the opposite side of all three of the groups he mentioned:"
"–
Disabled American Veterans (DAV): In a list of 36 “key votes,” shows
McCain “Voted
Against Us” 16 times. ([2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
Barack] Obama “Voted
With Us” 17 times, and against only once.)"
"–
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW): Endorsed
[Virginia Democratic Senator] Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA [Democratic-Virginia])
GI Bill that McCain vigorously opposed; called McCain’s alternative GI
Bill “very
partisan” and said they “didn’t have much input” in its crafting."
"–
American Legion: Endorsed
Webb’s GI Bill and criticized McCain’s concern
about how it would affect retention, saying the bill “would
encourage young men and women to join the military.”"
"Just
last week, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a
grade of D for his record of voting against veterans. (Obama got a
B.)
The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) have noted that in its “Key Votes,”
McCain “Voted Against
Us” 15 times and “Voted For Us” only 8. (Obama voted for VVA 12 times,
and against only once.)"
... "Earlier this month, [Texas Democratic Representative] Rep. Chet Edwards
(D-TX [Democratic-Texas]), a leading veterans advocate, excoriated McCain
in an interview with ThinkProgress: “If you look at John McCain’s record
on veterans issues, it’s
a failed one.” It’s a sentiment IAVA executive director Paul Rieckhoff
agrees with. Noting McCain’s dismal voting record on VA funding, Rieckhoff
told ThinkProgress, “If he says the VA’s not working, it’s
in part because he hasn’t funded it properly.”"
"Update In an interview with Richmond's
[Virginia's capital] WTVR on Friday, McCain repeated his favorite lie:
"I've been a friend of the veterans for a long time and I've
received every award from every major veterans organization." He added,
"I'm proud of my support for the veterans."" -By Ali
Frick -ThinkProgress.org
Environmental
- Politics
"The
League of Conservation Voters Is Friendlier to Republicans than Democrats."
... "The LCV [League of Conservation Voters] scorecard is the major scorecard
for the environmental movement, this is their measure of how friendly to
the environment a candidate is, a selection of key votes that set goals
for the large and sprawling set of green groups." ... "Basically, what
the data suggests is that LCV has two sets of standards, one for Democrats,
who have to meet a certain bar for support, and one for Republicans, who
have to meet a lower bar for support." -By Matt
Stoller -OpenLeft.com
John
McCain - Illegal
-Foreign
- Money
-Politics
- Russia
- 
- Arizona
- US
- 2008
Election
"McCain:
Brother, Can You Spare A Ruble?" ... "... the [2008
Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain campaign sought
illegal contributions from the Russian ambassador to the United Nations."
"The
Russian Mission to the United Nations issued a bizarre statement to the
UN press corps today stating simply, "We have received a letter from [Arizona]
Senator John McCain requesting financial contribution to his Presidential
campaign. In this connection we would like to reiterate that Russian officials,
the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations or
the Russian Government do not finance political activity in foreign countries.""
"Intrigued,
I called the Russian Mission and a press officer there directed me to this
item on the Mission's website. It seems that the McCain-Palin campaign
sent a generic fundraising letter to Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly I Churkin."
"Accepting
foreign
money is, of course, against the law. The McCain campaign was, in effect,
asking the Russian ambassador for an illegal campaign contribution." ...
"Russian officials don't believe the McCain campaign was deliberately asking
for an illegal donation." -By Steve Benen
-WashingtonMonthly.com
20081014
Barack
Obama -2008
Election - Federal
- Law
- Politics
- Investigation
- 
Colorado
- Indiana
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Nevada
- 
North
Carolina - 
New
Hampshire
Wisconsin
"Obama
Campaign: Count Every Vote." ... "Republicans have
been raising a huge stink about voter
fraud in recent days, but the much bigger question on Election
Day [2008] is whether every vote (or at least most of them) will actually
be counted." ... "The New York Times published a shocking
story last week, reporting that "tens of thousands of eligible
voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or
have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal
law."" ... "The article continued: "Although much attention this year has
been focused on the millions of new voters being added to the rolls by
the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given
to the number of voters being dropped from those same rolls." The paper
looked at six swing states: Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and
North Carolina. "Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls
within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when
voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or
have been declared unfit to vote. Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio
seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration
applications for new voters."" ... "The net effect: in Michigan 33,000
voters were removed from the rolls in August and in Colorado 37,000 voters
were purged in three weeks since mid-July. Imagine this scenario--on Election
Day thousands of voters will show up to the polls, only to be told they're
not registered, leading to chaos and confusion, perhaps in large enough
numbers to swing the results in crucial swing states." ... "It's a scary
thought--and one the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack]
Obama campaign says they're preparing for. On a conference call today,
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and legal counsel Bob Bauer laid out
their plans to ensure that every vote is counted." ... ""This has been
an election of enormous interest to the American people and we think that's
something that should be celebrated," Plouffe said. "Our opponents seem
to have a different view."" ... "Obama counsel Bob Bauer pointed to examples
in Montana, where Republicans have used change-of-address forms to improperly
challenge new Democratic registrants (a federal judge called the GOP's
tactics "political chicanery"); in Ohio, where Republicans challenged same-day
registration and absentee voting (the 6th circuit court said the claim
rested on "shaky ground"); in Michigan, where Republicans tried to use
foreclosure lists to purge voters; and in Wisconsin, where the Republican
Attorney General is suing the state's board of elections. (And just today,
a GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] operative was indicted
for lying to the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] about charges that
he jammed the phones of the New Hampshire Democratic Party on Election
Day 2002.)" -By Ari
Berman -TheNation.com
20081010
Norm
Coleman -Money
- Fashion
- Politics
- Minnesota
- Video
- 2008
Election
"A
Simple Question, Yes or No?" ... "Did Nasser Kazeminy
pay for [Minnesota Republican Norm] Colemans suits or not?"
[Cullen
Sheehan]
[Minnesota
Republican Norm Coleman Campaign Manager Cullen Sheehan.]
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Sarah
Palin - Terrorism
- Language
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- Politics
- 2008
Election
"McCain's
attacks fuel dangerous hatred." ... "2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain: If your campaign does not
stop equating [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois
Senator] Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and
portraying Mr. Obama as "not one of us," I accuse you of deliberately feeding
the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore
of potentially instigating violence." ... "At a [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill
him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither
was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed
and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa. [Pennsylvania],
the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee - an attitude
encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the
local Republican chairman." ... "Shame!" ... "John McCain: In 2000, as
a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W.
Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military
service. You seemed to be a man who put principle ahead of mere political
gain." ... "You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as
a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or
go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate."
... "Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch
mobs." ... "John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and
you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice,
to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing
this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history
of assassinations." -By Frank Schaeffer
-BaltimoreSun
20081009
Noteworthy
- Sarah
Palin -Military
- Terrorism
- Alaska
- Federal
- Oil
- Land
- Money
- Politics
-
- International
- Law
- US
-2008
Election
"Alaskan
Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel."
... "[2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin,
it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's
perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband,
actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the
Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members
of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk
away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land
base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy." ...
"AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska,"
from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy
in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal
and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law.""
... "AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism
of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads
a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for
America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central
purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska,
says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation.""
... "Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives
that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United
States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared
to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes,
promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is
an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced
Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism." ... "Palin's husband Todd remained
an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era
palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration,
she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft
constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent
nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that
she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience
so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006
convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention."
-By
Robert
F. Kennedy Jr. -HuffingtonPost.com
20081008
John
McCain - Terrorism
- Women
- Abortion
- Clinics
- Federal
- Law
- Politics
- History
- Arizona
- Oregon
- 2008
Election
"Woman's
rights advocate: McCain sides with 'sympathizers and enablers of domestic
terrorism'." ... "The Arizona Senator [and 2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain] may not have directly consorted
with any clinic bombers, but his legislative record was certainly favorable
to them, and critics are hammering his association with sympathizers of
domestic terrorists who target abortion providers." ... "People For the
American Way encouraged McCain to "look in the mirror" after a RAW
STORY report revealed McCain's connection with Marylin Shannon, a Republican
official in Oregon who was a McCain delegate at this year's GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican (2008 election)] convention. The two appeared together
at a 1993 fundraiser for an ultra-conservative organization where Shannon
praised a woman who was later convicted of attempted murder in the shooting
of an abortion clinic doctor." ... "“When anti-choice extremists were terrorizing
American women and their doctors, John McCain had multiple opportunities
to make what should have been an easy choice,” PFAW president Kathryn Kolbert
said
Tuesday. “But he chose political expediency over law and order." ...
""He didn’t say a word when Marylin Shannon sympathized with an attempted
killer. He voted against the clinic access bill even as everyday Americans
were being assaulted and besieged by domestic terrorists," continued Kolbert,
a longtime women’s rights advocate who successfully argued a crucial abortion
rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992. "As someone who faced
repeated threats for work on behalf of reproductive rights, I am deeply
disturbed by John McCain’s willingness to stand with and side with sympathizers
and enablers of domestic terrorism.”" ... "McCain and Shannon appeared
together at a fundraiser for the Oregon Citizens Alliance in 1993, a gathring
of Christian right extremists that even fellow Republicans advised McCain
not to attend because the group was so far outside the mainstream." ...
"Speaking before McCain, Shannon offered some kind words for Shelley Shannon,
who was accused and later convicted of shooting an abortion doctor: "I'm
not related to Shelly Shannon, but I think she's a fine lady," the vice
chairwoman of the state Republican Party said. McCain apparently said nothing
to contradict that judgement, and less than three months later he voted
against a bill that would make abortion clinic bombings a federal crime."
-By Nick Juliano -RawStory.com
20081007
Sarah
Palin - Terrorism
- Politics
- Alaska
- 
Iran
-
- History
- US
- Federal
- Law
-Enforcement
- Earth
- Environment
- 2008
Election
"The
Palins' un-American activities." ... ""My government
is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."" ...
"The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the
Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah] Palin, that's the
very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd [Palin], belonged to
for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier
this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless
you.")" ... "AIP chairwoman Lynette
Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's
Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."" ... "So who
are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?" ...
"Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed
insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried
a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats
come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets.
In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and
I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a
time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor.
That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful
means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope
we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property
rights, look out, we're ready to die."" ... "This quote is from "Coming
Into the Country," by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska's remote
gold mining country with Vogler for his 1991 book. The violent-tempered
secessionist vowed to McPhee that if any federal official tried to stop
him from polluting Alaska's rivers with his earth-moving equipment, he
would "run over him with a Cat and turn mosquitoes loose on him while he
dies."" ... "Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance
before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the
entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had
persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue."
... "That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American
hostages." ... "AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year
by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S.
before he could reach his U.N. platform." -By David
Talbot -Salon
Reporter
- Politics- Government
- Financial
- Social
Security - Accounting
- 2008
Election
"If
Social Security Was a Private Corporation Then it Would Sue Tom Brokaw
for Every Penny He Has." ... "If a news reporter
deliberately makes a false statement claiming that a private company like
Boeing or Microsoft is going broke, the company has the right to sue the
reporter and the news agency. That is why reporters rarely make statements
like Microsoft or Boeing (or Lehman Brothers, AIG, or Goldman Sachs) are
going broke." ... "However, reporters can freely impugn the financial health
of a government program like Social Security because a government program
cannot sue for libel. That is why Brokaw knew that he could imply that
Social Security is going broke, even though it is not true. Social Security
cannot sue Brokaw even if he deliberately tells explicit lies about its
financial health." ... "Those who are interesting in learning about the
true state of Social Security's financial health can find out by looking
at the non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office's website [PDF]." -By Dean
Baker -Prospect.org
20081006
John
McCain - Terrorism
- Politics
- Women's-Medical
- Abortion
- Rights- Federal
- Law
- Enforcement
- Colorado
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Voted To Protect Domestic Terrorists Who Carry Out Violence At Abortion
Clinics." ... "Referencing a recent New York Times
article, [spokesperson for 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
John McCain, Nancy] Pfotenhauer claimed that if McCain “hung out with somebody
who had bombed abortion clinics” it would be a legitimate topic of discussion."
... "Pfotenhauer’s invocation of abortion clinic bombers in defense of
McCain is ironic given that McCain has repeatedly voted against protecting
Americans from domestic terrorists in the anti-choice movement. On multiple
occasions throughout his career, McCain sought to limit the government’s
ability to punish violent anti-choice fanatics by:"
"–
Voting against making anti-choice violence a federal crime. As the
Jed Report notes, McCain voted
in 1993 and 1994 against making “bombings, arson and blockades at abortion
clinics, and shootings and threats of violence against doctors and nurses
who perform abortions” federal crimes."
"–
Opposing Colorado’s “Bubble Law.” McCain said he opposed Colorado’s
“Bubble Law,” which prohibited abortion protesters from getting within
8 feet of women entering clinics [Denver Post, 2/27/00]. The law was later
upheld
by the U.S. Supreme Court."
"–
Voting to allow those fined for violence at clinics to avoid penalties
by declaring bankruptcy. NARAL Pro-Chioce America notes that McCain
“voted to allow perpetrators of violence or harassment at reproductive-health
clinics to avoid
paying the fines assessed against them for their illegal acts by declaring
bankruptcy.””
-ThinkProgress.org
20080929
Giuliani
- 
Paulson
- Corporate
- Government
- Law
- Politics
-History
"The
Rich Are Staging a Coup This Morning ...a message from Michael Moore."
... "The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place
as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are
being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars
to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five
years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over
a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, [Republican President]
Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting
the U.S. [United States] Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are
swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door."
... "No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use,
they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order
to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just
read the first four paragraphs of the lead
story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the
real deal is:"
""Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of
the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from
it."
""Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments
covered, not just those related to mortgages."
""At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the
assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions,
a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees."
""Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets
of financial institutions.""
"Unbelievable.
Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to
clean up like bandits. Even [Republican] Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for
his firm to be hired
(and paid) to "consult" in the bailout." ... "The problem is, nobody
truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even [Republican President
Bush's] Treasury Secretary [Henry] Paulson admitted he doesn't know the
exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out
of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't
figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone. " -By
Michael
Moore
20080923
John
McCain - Sarah
Palin -Media
- Politics
- Commentary
- Alaska
- 2008
Election
"Campbell
Brown Rips McCain Camp's "Sexist" Treatment Of Palin."
... "A prominent female news anchor chastised the [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate John] McCain campaign Tuesday evening for engaging
in sexism and insulting behavior in its attempt to shield [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor] Gov. Sarah
Palin from members of the press." ... "In a fiery commentary, Campbell
Brown laid into John McCain for casting a "chauvinistic chain" that ran
over his running mate. Punctuated by a call to "Free Sarah Palin," the
CNN anchor highlighted the attempt Tuesday by the McCain campaign to ban
editorial reporters from covering Palin's visit with world leaders
at the UN, as yet another gender-demeaning move in a campaign highlighted
by sexist behavior." ... ""[Campbell Brown:] "Tonight I call on
the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate
flower that will wilt at any moment," said Brown. "This woman is from Alaska
for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And
you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If
that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow
her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters...
Let her have a real news conference with real questions. By treating Sarah
Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing
her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin. Free her from the chauvinistic
chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an
end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this
race as the men do. So let her act like one."" -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
WATCH:
Female news anchor tell Republican McCain camp to end its "sexist" treatment
of Republican Sarah Palin and "Free Sarah Palin"
Henry
Paulson
- Corporate
- Government
- Legislative- Politics
"Good
ideas and lies." ... "So, this morning [Republican
President Bush's Treasury Secretary] Hank Paulson told
a whopper:"
[Hank
Paulson:] "We gave you a simple, three-page legislative outline and I thought
it would have been presumptuous for us on that outline to come up with
an oversight mechanism. That’s the role of Congress, that’s something we’re
going to work on together. So if any of you felt that I didn’t believe
that we needed oversight: I believe we need oversight. We need oversight."
"What
the proposal actually
did, of course, was explicitly rule out any oversight, plus grant immunity
from future review:"
"Sec.
8. Review."
"Decisions
by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable
and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court
of law or any administrative agency."
"I’m
not playing gotcha here. This is telling: if Paulson can’t be honest about
what he himself sent to Congress — if he not only made an incredible power
grab, but is now engaged in black-is-white claims that he didn’t — there
is no reason to trust him on anything related to his bailout plan." -By
Paul
Krugman/Blog
-NYTimes
20080921
John
McCain - Corporate
- Government
-Disaster
- Politics
- US_Debt
- Healthcare
- Social
Security - Rights
- Book
- 2008
Election
"Naomi
Klein: Financial crisis part of Bush 'shock doctrine'."
... "The bailout of Wall Street’s largest players by the federal government
is another example of the [Republican President] Bush administration pursuing
a corporate agenda at the expense of average Americans, a prominent author
argued on Friday." ... "In a Friday night interview on HBO's Real Time
with Bill Maher, Naomi Klein said President Bush’s $700
billion proposal to rescue the financial sector stems from a profiteering
streak that has dominated the last eight years." ... ""The disaster is
far from over," Klein said. "The disaster was on Wall Street and they have
moved the disaster to Main Street."" ... "Referring to the bailout, Klein
said the "bomb has yet to detonate" and that the real crisis will strike
when tax payers are overwhelmed when faced with the debt from the bailouts."
... "According to Klein, the bomb will detonate if
Sen. John McCain becomes president and "rationalizes" that it is necessary
to privatize government programs like social security and healthcare because
neither the government nor Americans can afford them." ... ""The real disaster
has yet to come; the real disaster is the debt that is going to explode
on American tax payers," Klein said." ... "Klein’s book, "The Shock Doctrine:
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," outlines how crises, real or perceived,
have been used by governments, especially the United States under George
W. Bush, to strong-arm
a disoriented citizenry into accepting changes to its rights, and its
government, that it wouldn't otherwise accept." -By
David Edwards and Andrew McLemore -RawStory.com
WATCH:
Naomi Klein on Republican Bush's "Shock Doctrine"
20080919
John
McCain - Banking
- Health
-Politics
- Government
-Law
- 2008
Election
"McCain
on banking and health." ... "Here’s what [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate and John] McCain has to say about the
wonders of market-based health reform:"
"[McCain:]
"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition,
as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices
of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based
regulation.""
"So
McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial
deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health
care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!"
-By
Paul
Krugman/Blog
-NYTimes
20080916
Sarah
Palin - Criminal
- Money
- Politics
- Women
-Children- Law
- Federal
- Alaska
- 2008
Election
"Source:
Sex Assault Program Cited in Monegan Firing Targeted Child Abusers."
... "So [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Alaska Governor]
Sarah Palin's latest explanation
for why she fired Walt Monegan is that he had gone over her head in seeking
federal money for an initiative to combat sexual assault crimes, before
she had approved the program." ... "But it now appears that the program
in question is one that most elected officials would be wary of admitting
they hadn't strongly backed. According to Peggy Brown, who heads the Alaska
Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Monegan wanted to use
the federal money to hire retired troopers and law enforcement officials,
and assign them to investigate the most egregious cases of sexual assault
-- including those against children." ... "In other words, if Palin's new
story is true, she fired Monegan for being too aggressive in going
after child molesters." ... "ABC News reported
yesterday that, although Alaska leads the nation in reported rapes
per capita, Palin hasn't made the issue a priority as governor." ... "Monegan,
however, appeared eager to change that. "He seemed to get the issue and
really took it seriously," Brown told TPMmuckraker." ... "According to
the Palin camp, too seriously." -By Zachary Roth
-TPMMuckracker
.TalkingPointsMemo
20080915
John
McCain - Sarah
Palin - Federal- Money
- Politics- Immigration
- Religion
-US
- Alaska
- Russia
- Iraq
-Military
- 2008
Election
"John
McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar." ... "When
Jon Stewart asked [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John]
McCain last year, "Are you going into crazy base world?" the celebrated
maverick acknowledged, "I'm afraid so."" ... "McCain flip-flopped on the
[Republican President] Bush tax cuts. He abandoned immigration reform.
He reached out to Jerry Falwell and other religious conservatives." ...
"It wasn't enough. And so, in a move that even one of his longtime advisers
conceded (in a remark captured by an open microphone) was disturbingly
"cynical," McCain gave the base [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential
Candidate] Sarah Palin." ... "So far, the main "maverick" actions that
McCain has promised as the next Republican president are to trim nonmilitary
Democratic spending and continue the Iraq war. You can't get more conventional
than that." ... "And even that message has been somewhat undermined by
disclosures that Palin was a champion of those costly federal earmark projects
she has lobbied for in Alaska—where, you know, you can see Russia." ...
"At this point, McCain has taken the obvious way out—launching a series
of distracting attacks on [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama, with slim regard for truth." ... "The ads have spurred a
backlash, the consequences
(or lack) of which may well decide the election." ... "For 18 months,
Obama has wagered all his chips on the (quaint? idealistic? brilliant?)
idea that the American people are tired of the same old sleazy and divisive
politics. McCain has now chosen to bet against him." ... "And we are the
cards." -By John Aloysius Farrell-usnews.com
20080914
John
McCain - William
E. Timmons, Sr. - Corporate
- Government
- Politics
- Oil
- 
Drug
- Housing
- Consumer
-Investigation
- Law
- Foreign
- Japan
- US
- 2008
Election
"Obama
Memo on a [Republican McCain] "Lobbyist-Run White House"."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain's Team
of Lobbyists Grows, As They Plan for a Lobbyist-Run White House" ... "Joining
the ranks of the seven lobbyists running McCain's campaign, William Timmons,
a top Washington lobbyist, has been named to plan McCain's transition effort.
With at least 177 lobbyists helping advise, raise money and run his campaign,
there was little doubt who would be influencing McCain's White House, should
he win, but this appointment just confirms: a John McCain White House will
be organized, managed and influenced by lobbyists and the same old Washington
politics John McCain has decried. Campaigning on reform while surrounding
himself with lobbyists for the oil industry, big drug companies and foreign
interests doesn't seem much like change, and nothing shows that more than
naming a top Washington lobbyist to plan his transition." ... "SEPTEMBER
2008: TIMMONS JOINS MCCAIN TEAM" ... "One Of DC's “Most Senior Inside Players,”
A Special Interest Lobbyist To Help McCain Transition Planning Effort.
William E Timmons, Sr., the McCain campaign's new senior advisor of a hypothetical
transition, is a “prominent Washington lobbyist who has worked for every
Republican president since Richard Nixon” pointed out Time magazine. This
year alone, he is registered as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac, Anheuser-Busch,
an insurance industry trade group, an oil industry group, and a pharmaceutical
company. Time called him one “of Washington's steadiest and most senior
inside players.” [Time, 9/12/08; Senate Office of Public Records]" ...
"Timmons, A Former Nixon Aide, Founded Lobbying Shop In The Aftermath Of
Watergate. “Aftershocks of the Watergate scandal were still rumbling in
1975 when William Timmons and three other former Nixon aides decided to
launch their own lobbying shop. ‘We figured if we got 10 clients to pay
us $100,000 a year, we'd be in the clover,' recalls the 76-year-old Timmons.”
[Politico, 3/7/07]" ... "WHILE MCCAIN CRITICIZED FREDDIE MAC'S LOBBYISTS,
TIMMONS EARNED MILLIONS LOBBYING FOR FREDDIE MAC." ... " ... Timmons Earned
More Than $2.7 Million for His Firm Lobbying for Freddie Mac from 2000-2008.
William Timmons earned $2,795,000 in lobbying fees for his firm lobbying
from 2000 through the 2nd Quarter of 2008. His firm lobbied for Freddie
Mac on housing issues. [Timmons and Company Lobbying Disclosures, 2000-2008]"
... "TIMMONS ALSO EARNED MILLIONS FOR HIS FIRM LOBBYING FOR OIL COMPANIES"
... "Timmons Earned $2.1 Million for His Firm Lobbying for Unocal and Also
Lobbied for Chevron. William Timmons lobbied for Unocal from 1999-2005
and then briefly lobbied for Chevron in 2005 after the firm purchased Unocal.
[Timmons and Company Senate Lobbying Disclosures, 1999-2005]" ... "Timmons
Lobbied on Two Price Gouging Prevention Bills For Oil Industry. According
to lobbying disclosure forms, William Timmons – on behalf of the American
Petroleum Institute – lobbied on S. 94 and S. 1263 in 2007, two bills which
dealt with prohibiting price gouging by merchants. Timmons continued his
registration, which began in 1999, into the summer of 2008. [Timmons and
Company Senate Lobbying Disclosures]" ... "HITACHI: Timmons Contract Came
As US Government Opened Investigation" ... "8/2/85: Justice Dept. Opens
Investigation Of Hitachi For Antitrust Violations. In early August 1985,
the US Dept. of “investigation of Hitachi Ltd. for alleged unfair pricing
practices.” The probe “accused the Japanese of closing their doors to U.S.-produced
goods while using unfair tactics to make gains in the domestic U.S. marketplace.”.
[San Diego Union Tribune, 8/7/85]" ... "8/27/85: Hitachi Hires Timmons's
Firm. The $75,000 contract (one year) was to “represent the interests of
Hitachi before the legislative and executive branches.” [FARA, Exhibit
AB, http://www.fara.gov/docs/3489-Exhibit-AB-19850901-D0V9DI01.pdf
]" ... "[FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) filings, US Dept. of Justice
(fara.gov)]" -From the
capaing of Barack Obama
-TIME.com
McLobbyist.com
20080906
John
McCain - Sarah
Palin - Lawyers
- Politics
- Investigation
- Alaska- 2008
Election
"Obstruction."
... "Newsweek: [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
John] McCain camp and its Alaska allies move
to shut down trooper-gate probe." ... "Within days of [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin's selection, at
least seven of her aides and associates, who had previously agreed
to cooperate with the trooper-gate investigation, informed investigator
Steve Branchflower that they were now no longer willing to be deposed.
Note too that this was immediately after the McCain team deployed
what George Stephanopoulos reported was a "rapid response team of about
ten operatives that includes lawyers" to the state." ... "So the question
is: what contact did representatives of the McCain campaign have with these
aides that had agreed to testify but within days of her selection
took back their pledge and are now refusing to cooperate?" -By
Josh Marshall .TalkingPointsMemo
20080904
Sarah
Palin - Rudy
Giuliani - Obama
-John
McCain - People
- 
Psychological
- Politics
- 2008
Election
"The
GOP's cheerful viciousness." ... "With last night's
cheerfully vicious speeches from [Republican] Rudy Giuliani and [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin, the Republicans did
what they always do in order to win elections: they exploited raw cultural
divides while mocking, belittling and demonizing Democratic leaders. Yet
again, they delivered brutally effective and deeply personal blows to the
Democratic presidential candidate grounded in the same manipulative and
deceitful yet very potent themes they've been using for the last three
decades." ... "Ever since Ronald Reagan's election, this is what the Republicans
do every four years. They render issues irrelevant and convert campaigns
into cultural wars and personality referenda. They converted our elections
into tawdry reality shows long before networks realized their entertainment
value. And every four years, Democrats seems shocked and paralyzed by all
of this and desperately delude themselves into believing that mean-spirited
"negativity" and nastiness will alienate voters, while the media swoons
at the potency of these attacks." ... "The derisive attacks on Obama's
character last night were exactly what Democrats decided -- yet again --
that they would studiously avoid at their own convention when discussing
John McCain." ... "None of this is to say that the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican]
attacks will enable them to win the election. It is quite possible that
enough Americans this year are so alienated from the GOP brand that they
are now largely immune from these kinds of substance-free personality assaults,
that they won't be blinded by cultural tribalism and personality appeals
into handing this political party an additional four years of power. But
these tactics have worked in the past because cultural tribalism, resentment
and alienation are very powerful influences in how people think -- in general,
they're more powerful than rational assessments of policy positions or
even one's self-interest -- and the Democrats' gamble that they can win
this election without really engaging those issues, while allowing that
war to be waged in a one-sided manner yet again, is a true gamble."
-By Glenn Greenwald -Salon
Barack
Obama -Sarah
Palin - Giuliani
- Religion
- Politics
- People
-Workers
- Poverty
- Justice
- Illinois
- 2008
Election
"What
a Community Organizer Does." ... "This morning, I
received a press release from a group called Catholic Democrats about the
work--the mission, the witness--that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Barack] Obama performed after he got out of college. Here's the
first paragraph:"
"Catholic
Democrats is expressing surprise and shock that Republican vice presidential
nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech tonight mocked her opponent's work
in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. She
belittled Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's experience as
a community organizer in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago,
work he undertook instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street.
In her acceptance speech, Ms. Palin said, "I guess a small-town mayor is
sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities."
Community organizing is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to end
poverty and promote social justice."
...
"So here is what [Republican Rudy] Giuliani and [2008 Election Republican
Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin didn't know: Obama was working
for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many
of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side
of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get
the services they needed--job training, help with housing and so forth--from
the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work--the sort
of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described
as a "task from God.")" -By Joe Klein
-Time-Blog.com
20080902
John
McCain -Military
- Politics
- Ads
- US
-Vietnam
- History
- 2008
Election
Watch
- "Former
POW says McCain is "not cut out to be President"."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain has
been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He
has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes
he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste
in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads.
But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining
loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country."
... "We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks,
but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the
truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr.
Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his
finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know—friends,
family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political
views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking
sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that
has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!"
... "The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing
his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions. * "Whether
he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute
to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card:
the Hanoi Hilton. — Edwin Chen, Bloomberg * "Noun, Verb, POW" — Andrew
Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly * "The McCain campaign's constant invocation
of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." — Ana
Marie Cox, TIME * "I think they are going to it way too many times." —
Howard Fineman, Newsweek" ... "Remember how Joe Biden got the press to
refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually
take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down
to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the
McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already
doing?" -BraveNewPac
-BraveNewFilms.org
20080831
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - Political
- Investigation
-Attorney
- Government
- Transportation
-Construction
- Money
-Alaska
- Oil- Global
- Climate-2008
Election
"What
McCain Didn't Know About Sarah Palin." ... "They've
[the 2008 Election Republican Presidential campaign of John McCain] bragged
that [Alaska Republican Governor Sarah] Palin opposed the famous "Bridge
to Nowhere," only to learn that Palin
supported the project and even told residents of Ketchikan [Alaska]
that they weren't "nowhere" to her. After the national outcry, she decided
to spend the funds allocated to the bridge for something else. Actually,
maybe it's more fair to say that coincident with the national outcry, she
changed her mind. The story shows her political judgment, but it is not
a reformer's credential." ... "Likewise, though she cut taxes as mayor
of Wassila [Alaska], she raised the sales tax, making her hardly a tax
cutter." ... "She denied pressuring the state's chief of public safety
to fire her sister-in-law's husband even though there's mounting evidence
that the impetus did indeed come from her. Ostensibly to clear her name,
Palin
asked her attorney general to open an independent investigation—the
legislature had already been investigating. (I am told that the campaign
was aware of the ethics complaint filed against her but accepts Palin's
account.)" ... "McCain's campaign seemed unaware that she supported a windfalls
profits tax on oil companies and that she is more skeptical about human
contributions to global warming than McCain is." ... "They did not know
that she took trips as the mayor of Wasilla to beg for earmarks." ... "They
did not know that she told a television interviewer this summer that she
did not fully understand what it is that a vice president does." -By
Marc
Ambinder -TheAtlantic.com
John
McCain -
Joe
Biden - Barack
Obama - 
Hillary
Clinton - Hurricane
Katrina - Weather
- Emergency
- Investigation
- Legislation
- Politics
-History
- Federal
- NY
- New
Orleans - Louisiana
- 
Communications
- Funds-Children
- Transportation
- 2008
Election
"McCain
To Katrina Victims In 2005: You're On Your Own."
... "It doesn’t really come as a surprise to those of us who have watched
[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain over the
years that he's about to make a campaign
stop in New Orleans [Louisiana] after Hurricane Gustav hits this week.
After all, he's been exploiting the troops for years, what's a few hurricane
victims after that?" ... "What does seem odd is that McCain thinks Gulf
Coast residents will forget how he, [Republican President] George W. Bush
and the then-Republican Congress turned their backs on them so many times
in the months after Katrina thundered ashore in 2005." ... "Too bad he
spent the months to follow leading the Republican charge against every
Senate bill that would have actually helped Katrina victims or mandated
investigations on how the Bush administration could have blown disaster
response so thoroughly." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic Vice Presidential
nominee Joe Biden jumped immediately to the aid of hurricane victims in
the week after the 2005 disaster, authoring S.Amdt.
1661 "…to provide emergency funding for victims of Hurricane Katrina.""
... "Biden's legislation would have provided many things including money
to purchase interoperable communications equipment to help first-responders
dealing with the disaster, $10 million "to find, unite, and transport children
impacted by Hurricane Katrina to their parents, legal guardian, or next
of kin" and funding to assist victims of domestic violence in affected
areas." ... "But with John McCain's help, the Republican-led Senate shot
down the funding on a 41-56
vote with McCain voting against, while Biden and Democratic Presidential
nominee Barack Obama voted for the funding." ... "When [New York Democratic]
Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY[ Democratic-New York]) proposed the creation
of a Congressional Commission to "examine the Federal, State, and local
response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.. and make immediate
corrective measures to improve such responses in the future," John McCain
was once again exactly where [Republican President] George W. Bush wanted
him to be: On the "nay" side of a straight party-line vote (44-54)
that killed that legislation." ... "And lest you think it was McCain taking
a stand against what might become a Democratic witch hunt on the failures
of his bosses in the White House, the bill called for a wholly bipartisan
panel, stating
specifically of the 10-member group that "not more than 5 members of
the Commission shall be from the same political party."" ... "Unlike McCain,
Barack Obama was one of the cosponsors of that bill and both he and Biden
voted for immediate oversight on the bungled Katrina response." ... "But
that's not all." -By Bob
Geiger
20080830
Sarah
Palin - Alaska
- Newspapers- US
- Iraq- Military
- Politics
- McCain
- 2008
Election
"2
Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness."
... "For the past 24 hours, the pages and web sites of the two leading
papers up there have raised all sorts of issues surrounding [2008 Election
Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin, from her ethics problems
to general lack of readiness for this big step up." ... "A reporter for
the Anchorage daily, Gregg Erickson, even did an online chat with the Washington
Post, in which he revealed that Palin's approval rating in the state
was not the much-touted 80%, but 65% and sinking -- and that among journalists
who followed her it might be in the "teens." He added: "I have a hard time
seeing how her qualifications stack up against the duties and responsibilities
of being president.... I expect her to stick with simple truths. When asked
about continued American troop presence in Iraq, she said she knows only
one thing about that (I paraphrase): no one has attacked the American homeland
since [Republican President] George Bush took the war to Iraq."" ... "Dermot
Cole, a columnist for the Fairbanks paper, observed that he thinks highly
of Palin as a person but "in no way does her year-and-a-half as governor
of Alaska qualify her to be vice president or president of the United States."
... ""One of the strange things Friday was that so many commentators and
politicians did not know how to pronounce her name and had no clue about
what she has actually done in Alaska....I may be proven wrong, but the
decision announced by McCain strikes me as reckless. She is not prepared
to be the next president should something happen to McCain."" -ByGreg
Mitchell -HuffingtonPost.com
20080829
Sarah
Palin -
Ted
Stevens - Political
- Ad
- 2006
Election - 2008
Election - Alaska
"Palin
Ad Starring Ted Stevens Already Scrubbed From Palin's Campaign Website."
... "This morning, an ad from [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential
Candidate] Sarah Palin's 2006 [Election for Alaska's Governor] gubernatorial
campaign featuring an endorsement from scandal-plagued Alaska [Republican]
Senator Ted Stevens was available on Palin's campaign Web site." ... "...but
now the Stevens ad has already been scrubbed." ... "Luckily, the ad featuring
Stevens and Palin is still available for your viewing pleasure!" -By
Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral
.TalkingPointsMemo
WATCH:
"Stevens Endorses Palin for Governor."
Sarah
Palin - John
McCain - Politics
-People
- Family
- Drugs
-Health
- Federal
- US
- Foreign
- Military
- Terrorism
- Alaska
-Idaho
- 2008
Election
"On
Sarah Palin." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] John McCain has selected Alaska [Republican] Governor Sarah
Palin as his running mate. [Governor] Gov. Palin was first elected to the
position in 2006 and previously served as the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 5,470)
[Alaska]. She also served on the town's city council. She has a degree
from the University of Idaho where she minored in political science. That
is the extent of her political experience." ... "Her biography is fascinating.
She is only 44 years-old. She eloped with her highschool sweetheart, a
Yup'ik Eskimo. They have five children named: Track 18, Bristol, 17, Willow,
13, Piper, 7, and Trig (who was born on April 18th). Trig has Down's Syndrome.
The Palins knew that Trig had an extra chromosome but decided to go ahead
with the pregnancy." ... "She has admitted to smoking the ganja [marijuana]
but says she didn't enjoy it. She was the runner-up in the Miss Alaska
contest." ... "I am not aware of Palin having any knowledge or experience
with foreign affairs, terrorism, the armed forces, or the federal bureaucracy."
... "Considering [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John
McCain's age and history with cancer, this pick has extra importance. It's
hard to envision Gov. Palin becoming president on short notice. It also
undermines McCain's focus on foreign policy and experience." -By
BooMan
Tribune
20080828
KBR
-Lawsuit
-Human
- Rights
-Iraq
- 
Nepal
- Workers
- US
- Company
- Military
"KBR
Suit Alleges 'Forced Labor' and 'Slavery'." ... "We've
now looked through the lawsuit against KBR that we
told you about this morning. The complaint
(pdf) alleges that the company -- the biggest U.S. [United States] contractor
in Iraq during the period at issue -- engaged in a human trafficking scheme
whereby 12 Nepali men were brought to Iraq to work and were prevented from
leaving. The men were then kidnapped by insurgents, and all but one were
executed." ... "In sum: "Defendants' actions as set forth above constitute
the torts of trafficking in persons, involuntary servitude, forced labor,
and slavery."" ... "This is hardly the first time that KBR has been in
hot water, of course. As we noted
back in June, the company "was criticized
in March for making troops sick by failing to provide clean water. And
top military officials have given
false statements to Congress to quell controversy over the company."
In addition, at least two female former KBR employees in Iraq have
alleged that they were raped or sexually assaulted by co-workers, and
that KBR was less than aggressive in investigating their claims." -By
Zachary Roth -TPMMuckracker
.TalkingPointsMemo
20080827
John
McCain - Houses
- Economy
-Car
- 
Internet
- US
- Foreign
- Gas
- Torture
- Guantanamo
- Prison
- Stem
Cells - Health
Care -Politics
- 2008
Election
"Trust
Me." ... ""You’re the Republican candidate for president
and you want to fix the country's problems even though you don’t know much
about the economy, you don’t know how to use the internet, you don’t know
how many houses you own or what kind of car you drive, you admit you don’t
think clearly when you’re tired, you make frequent gaffes on foreign policy,
you think offshore drilling is a short-term solution to high gas prices,
you support torture and keeping the Guantanamo prison open, you make rash
decisions and statements from which you have to quickly backtrack, you
have an explosive temper on a hair trigger, your idea of health care reform
is 'wear more sunscreen,' you're for stem cell research except when it's
done on stem cells because you consider them all American citizens, and
you voted to support the policies of the worst president ever 100 percent
of the time this year?"" ... ""Trust me, my friends. I was a POW."" ...
"Only in Republicanland." -Bill
in Portland Maine -DailyKos.com
20080825
WATCH
- 2008
Election - Politics
- Noteworthy
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Global
- Climate
- Environment- Fiscal
- History
- 
Iowa
"Full
Text: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach Speech to Democratic National Convention."
... [Speech by Iowa Republican Representative Jim Leach:] "In troubled
times, it was understood that country comes before party, that in perilous
moments mutual concern for the national interest must be the only factor
in political judgments. This does not mean that debate within and between
the political parties should not be vibrant. Yet what frustrates so many
citizens is the lack of bipartisanship in Washington and the way today’s
Republican Party has broken with its conservative heritage." ... "The party
that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward
regulating values. The party of military responsibility has taken us to
war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led
the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the
defense of the earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has
abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party
historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national
debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented
effort to finance a war with tax cuts." ... "America has seldom faced more
critical choices: whether we should maintain an occupational force for
decades in a country and region that resents western intervention or elect
a leader who, in a carefully structured way, will bring our troops home
from Iraq as the heroes they are. Whether it is wise to continue to project
power largely alone with flickering support around the world or elect a
leader who will follow the model of General Eisenhower and this president’s
father and lead in concert with allies." ... "Whether it is prudent to
borrow from future generations to pay for today’s reckless fiscal policies
or elect a leader who will shore up our budgets and return to a strong
dollar. Whether it is preferable to continue the policies that have weakened
our position in the world, deepened our debt and widened social divisions
or elect a leader who will emulate John F. Kennedy and relight a lamp of
fairness at home and reassert an energizing mix of realism and idealism
abroad." ... "The portfolio of challenges passed on to the next president
will be as daunting as any since the Great Depression and World War II.
This is not a time for politics as usual or for run-of-the-mill politicians.
Little is riskier to the national interest than more of the same. America
needs new ideas, new energy and a new generation of leadership." ... "Hence,
I stand before you proud of my party’s contributions to American history
but, as a citizen, proud as well of the good judgment of good people in
this good party, in nominating a transcending candidate, an individual
whom I am convinced will recapture the American dream and be a truly great
president:
the senator from Abraham Lincoln’s state—Barack Obama. Thank you." -By
Jim Leach via -Clips&Comment
WATCH:
Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa at the Democratic National Convention
20080821
John
McCain - Money
-Politics
-Phoenix
- Arizona
- Condo
- 2008
Election
"Two
Become One." ... "I was wondering
yesterday how it is that you manage to spend almost $4.7 million on
a condo in Phoenix [Arizona], and the answer turns out to be that the McCains
bought
two luxury condos and combined them. The $4.66 million figure is the
combined
price of his cribs. What’s more, at 2211
Camelback you’re not just paying for a swanky pad, you’re getting top-notch
amenities
like an edgeless rooftop pool and a concierge staff prepared to cater to
your every whim:"
"*
Laundry and dry cleaning service with pick-up and delivery"
"*
Personal spa services"
"*
Travel and driver services"
"*
Dining reservations and catering"
"*
Special events tickets"
"*
Shopping services"
"*
Housekeeping and maintenance services"
"*
Pet services, auto detailing, plant care, etc."
"*
Business services"
"
-By Matthew Yglesias
-ThinkProgress.org/Wonk
Room
20080812
Bob
Perry - 
Bob
Schaffer -Colorado
- Texas
-Money
- Politics
- 2008
Election
"Swift
Boat Vet Financier Dumping Huge Money Into Key Senate Race."
... "[Texas Republican] Bob Perry, the wealthy businessman who bankrolled
the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth to the tune of several million dollars,
has a new cause: He's lavishing huge funds on the conservative group Club
for Growth, which is in turn putting big money behind GOP [GOP=Grand Old
Party=Republican] candidates in key Senate races." ... "Perry has just
plowed a whopping $400,000 into the coffers of the Club for Growth, the
big right-wing group that advocates for conservative economic policies,
the latest FEC [Federal Election Commission] records show." ... "Club For
Growth, in turn, is now spending about $227,000 of that money to air an
attack ad in Colorado against [Colorado Democratic Senate Candidate] Mark
Udall, who is the presumptive Dem nominee is going up against scandal-plagued
[Colorado Republican] GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer." -By
Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld -ElectionCentral
- TalkingPointsMemo.com
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Racist
- Political
-Ads
- 2008
Election
"Missing
the Point of McCain's Ads." ... "I've gotta disagree
with Markos
and Josh Marshall
on this one. [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain's
new "hot
chicks dig Obama" ad is not intended to be a racist dog-whistle. If
it was, they would have put more effort into it and they'd be playing it
in heavy circulation in the South. Instead, the ad is a hastily thrown
together, low-budget web ad that only political junkies like Markos and
Josh are likely to bother watching." ... "In other words, this particular
dog-whistle isn't directed at racists; it's directed at liberals. The McCain
camp knows that all they have to do is put a few
young white women in an anti-Obama ad (even one they don't intend to
air), and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama's
liberal defenders will instantly flip out and accuse them of being racists.
That then gives them the opportunity to, once again, play the role of the
victim and accuse Obama and his defenders of "playing the race card." Wash.
Rinse. Repeat." ... "The McCain camp knows that whenever the discussion
turns to race, it's a bad day for Obama, so they are deliberately trying
to bait Obama's supporters into making accusations of racism. They're [McCain's
campaign are] trying to stoke white racial resentment indirectly by setting
themselves up as the falsely accused." -AnonymousLiberal.com
20080810
John
Edwards - John
McCain - Media
- Politics
- 2008
Election - Obama
- Family
- People
- Money
-History
"Catching
the Wrong John: Why Are the Media Talking about John Edwards' Infidelity
If They Aren't Going to Talk about John McCain's?"
... "If John Edwards' infidelity is news, and he's not a candidate for
anything, why isn't [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John
McCain's? He reportedly had numerous affairs in the years after returning
home from Vietnam to a beautiful wife who had been disfigured in a car
accident, and ultimately, by his own reports, he zeroed in like a laser
on beautiful a 25-year-old heiress upon meeting her one evening in 1979
while he was still married, promptly lied to her about his age, and almost
as promptly left his wife for her. We all extol John McCain for enduring
5 years of extreme hardship in Vietnam. But aren't his first wife's circumstances
much like Elizabeth Edwards'? After all, the first Mrs. McCain waited in
agony (and presumably fidelity) during those five long years for her beloved
husband to return from Vietnam, raising their children while he was away
and undergoing dozens of painful operations herself, only to be repaid
by a philandering husband who ultimately left her for a younger woman."
... "Now personally, I don't think anybody's sex life has any bearing on
a campaign, except to the extent that the candidate runs as a hypocrite,
extolling family values, fighting gays while fighting his own gay demons,
etc. But John McCain is increasingly making this campaign about character,
and his actions over many years suggest some worrisome patterns that fly
in the face of the entire story he tells about himself. Setting aside his
cheating on his first wife, what about his attending to something other
than the people's business as a member of the Keating Five (and ultimately
contributing to a bailout that cost middle class American taxpayers the
equivalent of nearly half a trillion in 2008 tax dollars -- imagine the
middle class tax break we could offer if we weren't still paying off the
principal and debt on that boondoggle); or hiring the most dishonest, amoral
campaign team money could buy in 2008; or generating one fabricated or
grossly misleading charge after another against [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama in the last three weeks (as in his
sleazy new tax ad where, for example, he says Obama would raise taxes on
small businesses when Obama has never proposed anything of the sort)? Like
[Republican] George W. Bush, he doesn't seem like a man who once was lost
but now is found. He [McCain] seems more like a man's whose principles
are soluble in self-interest." -By Drew Westen
-HuffingtonPost.com
20080808
John
McCain - John
Edwards - Family
- People
- 2008
Election - Politicians
"How
is John McCain's Affair Different than John Edwards'?"
... "We have this weird notion in America now that if a politician is caught
in an affair that his career is done. We seem to be saying that what he
did in his private life effects his policies or how he governs. But we
all know that isn't true. We know that because almost all of our great
presidents, and great leaders throughout history, have had numerous affairs.
Obviously it didn't hurt how they governed at all." ... "Now, we get to
the most relevant question - if [former 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] John Edwards' political career is done, why isn't John McCain's?
[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain had a well-documented
affair on his first wife, with his current wife. He has admitted in the
books he has written about his life that he ran around with several different
women while still married to his first wife. And don't forget that he left
her for a younger, richer woman - multi-millionaire Cindy Hensley who is
now Cindy McCain - after she had been severely hurt in a car accident."
... "So, why are McCain's actions any more excusable than Edwards'? Because
it was thirty years ago? Does that wash it away? Will we be fine with Edwards
running for office again in a couple of years because then it will all
be in the past? What is the statute of limitations on an affair?" ... "Remember
Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan and Ross Perot were so upset with how John
McCain dealt with his first wife that they didn't forgive him for a very,
very long time. Perot still hasn't forgiven him. In fact, he said recently
about McCain dumping his first wife for Cindy, "McCain is the classic opportunist.
He's always reaching for attention and glory."" ... "So, I want every pundit
who condemns John Edwards today to tell me what the difference between
him and McCain is and why John McCain shouldn't also be run out of politics
for his adulterous affairs and what he did to his first wife."
-By
Cenk
Uygur -HuffingtonPost.com
Elizabeth
Edwards - John
Edwards - Family
- 2008
Election - Politics
"Today."
[By Elizabeth Edwards] ... "Our family has been through a lot. Some
caused by nature, some caused by human weakness, and some – most recently
– caused by the desire for sensationalism and profit without any regard
for the human consequences. None of these has been easy. But
we have stood with one another through them all. Although John believes
he should stand alone and take the consequences of his action now, when
the door closes behind him, he has his family waiting for him." ... "John
made a terrible mistake in 2006. The fact that it is a mistake that
many others have made before him did not make it any easier for me to hear
when he told me what he had done. But he did tell me. And we began a long
and painful process in 2006, a process oddly made somewhat easier with
my diagnosis in March of 2007. This was our private matter, and I
frankly wanted it to be private because as painful as it was I did not
want to have to play it out on a public stage as well. Because of
a recent string of hurtful and absurd lies in a tabloid publication, because
of a picture falsely suggesting that John was spending time with a child
it wrongly alleged he had fathered outside our marriage, our private matter
could no longer be wholly private." ... "The pain of the long journey since
2006 was about to be renewed." ... "John has spoken in a long on-camera
interview I hope you watch. Admitting one’s mistakes is a hard thing for
anyone to do, and I am proud of the courage John showed by his honesty
in the face of shame. The toll on our family of news helicopters
over our house and reporters in our driveway is yet unknown. But
now the truth is out, and the repair work that began in 2006 will continue.
I ask that the public, who expressed concern about the harm John’s conduct
has done to us, think also about the real harm that the present voyeurism
does and give me and my family the privacy we need at this time." -By
Elizabeth
Edwards -DailyKos.com
20080806
Hillary
Rodham Clinton - Dick
Cheney - Halliburton
KBR - 
Blackwater
- Corporate
- Government
- Disaster
- Politics
- Military
- Peoples
- Health
- Investigators
- Hurricane
Katrina -Housing
- US
- Iraq
- 
Cayman
Islands
"No
Crisis Is Immune From Exploitation Under Bush." ...
[By
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:] "Tucked away on the Cayman Islands sits Ugland
House, an unassuming, nondescript building of modest scale and size. However,
according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO),
this five-story office building is home to more than 18,000 corporate entities,
nearly half of which have U.S. [United States] ties." ... "In the past
few years, the number of corporations flocking to places like the Cayman
Islands to evade U.S. taxes has exploded. One of these companies, [Republican
Vice President Dick Cheney's] former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, has used
offshore tax havens to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in
federal taxes. To no one's surprise, instead of cracking down on KBR, the
[Republican President] Bush administration has rewarded the company in
April of this year with a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq." ...
"There appears to be no crisis, tragedy or disaster immune from exploitation
under the Bush administration. The examples of the waste, fraud and abuse
are legion -- from KBR performing shoddy electrical work in Iraq that has
resulted in the electrocution of our military personnel according to Pentagon
and Congressional investigators, to the firing of an Army official who
dared to refuse a $1 billion payout for questionable charges to the same
company. In another scam, the Pentagon awarded a $300 million contract
to AEY, Inc. [Incorporated], a company run by a 22-year-old who fulfilled
an ammunition deal in Afghanistan by supplying rotting Chinese-made munitions
to our allies." ... "But the fraud and waste are not limited to the war.
In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, for example, FEMA [Federal Emergency
Management Agency] awarded a contract worth more than $500 million for
trailers to serve as temporary housing. The contractor, Gulf Stream, collected
all of its money even though they knew at the time that its trailers were
contaminated with formaldehyde." ... "While touting fiscal responsibility,
[Republican] President Bush and his administration have lined the pockets
of political cronies like Halliburton and Blackwater. While calling for
earmark reform, the president has allowed no-bid and questionable contracting
throughout the federal government to dwarf earmark spending by a 10-to-1
ratio." -By Hillary Rodham Clinton
-WSJ.com
20080805
Government
- Intelligence
- Secretly
- Marketing
- Media
- Opinion- Noteworthy
- Military
- Terrorism
- Political
- History
- Book
- US
-Iraq
"Book
says White House ordered forgery." ... "A new book
by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the
head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein." ... "Suskind writes in “The
Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery –
adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link
between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war."
... "Suskind writes in his new book that the order to create the letter
was written on “creamy White House stationery.” The book suggests that
the letter was subsequently created by the CIA and delivered to Iraq, but
does not say how." ... "The author claims that such an operation, part
of “false pretenses” for war, would apparently constitute illegal White
House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable
offense." ... "Suskind writes that the White House had “ignored the Iraq
intelligence chief’s accurate disclosure that there were no weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time
to stop an invasion." ... "“They secretly resettled him in Jordan, paid
him $5 million – which one could argue was hush money – and then used his
captive status to help deceive the world about one of the era’s most crushing
truths: that America had gone to war under false pretenses,” the book says."
... "Suskind writes that the forgery “operation created by the White House
and passed to the CIA seems inconsistent with” a statute saying the CIA
may not conduct covert operations “intended to influence United States
political processes, public opinion, policies or media.”" ... "“It is not
the sort of offense, such as assault or burglary, that carries specific
penalties, for example, a fine or jail time,” Suskind writes. “It is much
broader than that. It pertains to the White House’s knowingly misusing
an arm of government, the sort of thing generally taken up in impeachment
proceedings.”" -By Mike Allen-Politico.com
20080727
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Broadcast
- Opinion
- Politics
- 2008
Election
"In
study, evidence of [conservative bias] liberal-bias bias:
Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias -- but a
think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama than on [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain in recent weeks." ... "The Center for
Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers
have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC
and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the
first six weeks of the general-election campaign." ... "You read it right:
tougher on the Democrat." ... "During the evening news, the majority of
statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral,
the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent
weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative."
... "Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically,
with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the
Washington-based media center." -By James Rainey
-LAtimes
Barack
Obama - John
McCain - Media- Politics
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- 
Kuwait
- Britain
- US
- 
Nuclear
- Military
- Terrorism
- Gas
- Money
- 2008
Election
"How
Obama Became Acting President." ... "The growing
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama clout derives
not from national polls, where his lead is modest. Nor is it a gift from
the press, which still gives free passes to its old bus mate [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain. It was laughable to watch
journalists stamp their feet last week to try to push Mr. Obama into saying
he was “wrong” about the surge. More than five years and 4,100 American
fatalities later, they’re still not demanding that Mr. McCain admit
he was wrong when he assured us that our adventure in Iraq would be fast,
produce little American “bloodletting” and “be paid for by the Iraqis.”"
... "Never mind. This election remains about the present and the future,
where Iraq’s $10 billion a month drain on American pocketbooks and military
readiness is just one moving part in a matrix of national crises stretching
from the gas pump to Pakistan." ... "First, on July 7, the Iraqi prime
minister, Nuri al-Maliki, dissed [Republican President] Bush dogma by raising
the prospect of a withdrawal timetable for our troops. Then, on July
15, Mr. McCain suddenly noticed that more
Americans are dying in Afghanistan than Iraq and called for more American
forces to be sent there. It was a long-overdue recognition of the obvious
that he could
no longer avoid: both Robert
Gates, the defense secretary [of Republican President Bush], and [Admiral]
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had already
called for_more
American troops to battle the resurgent Taliban, echoing the policy
proposed by Mr. Obama a
year ago." ... "On July 17 we learned
that [Republican] President Bush, who had labeled
direct talks with Iran “appeasement,” would send
the No. 3 official in the State Department to multilateral nuclear talks
with Iran. Lest anyone doubt that the White House had moved away from the
rigid stand endorsed by Mr. McCain and toward Mr. Obama’s, a former Rumsfeld
apparatchik weighed in on The Wall Street Journal’s op-ed page: “Now
Bush Is Appeasing Iran.”" ... "Within 24 hours, the White House did
another U-turn, endorsing
an Iraq withdrawal timetable as long as it was labeled
a “general time horizon.” In a flash, as Mr. Obama touched
down in Kuwait, Mr. Maliki approvingly cited the Democratic candidate
by name while laying out a troop-withdrawal calendar of his own that, like
Mr. Obama’s, would wind down in 2010. On Tuesday, the British prime minister,
Gordon Brown, announced a major drawdown of his nation’s troops by early
2009." -By Frank Rich-NYTimes
20080716
Gordon
Smith - Oregon
- 2008
Election - Politics
"Oregon
Senate: Merkley tops Smith for first time 43% to 41%."
... "Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley for the first time has edged ahead
of Republican Senator Gordon Smith 43% to 41% in Oregon, according to the
latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey. While the advantage is not statistically
significant, it is noteworthy for an incumbent senator to receive such
low levels of support at this point in a campaign."
-RasmussenReports
20080714
Barack
Obama - Military
- Police
- US
- Iraq
-Afghanistan
- Iran
- Pakistan
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Government
- Money
-Political
-McCain- Arizona
- 2008
Election
"My
Plan for Iraq." [By 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Canidate Barack Obama] ... "The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an
enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment
of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term
success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States." ... "The
differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike [2008 Election Republican
Senator and Arizona] Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before
it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake
to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and
the Taliban [in Afghanistan] by invading a country [Iraq] that posed no
imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then,
more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion.
Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan
to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown." ... "In the 18 months since [Republican]
President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically
in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the
Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly
weakening its effectiveness." ... "But the same factors that led me to
oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown,
the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200
billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to
invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their
own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that
was the stated purpose of the surge." ... "The good news is that Iraq’s
leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a
timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. [Lieutenant
General] James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s
security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready
to assume responsibility for security in 2009." ... "Only by redeploying
our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation
and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for
the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment
and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator
McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous
commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government." ... "Ending
the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has
a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and
it never has been. As Adm. [Admiral] Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources
to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq."
... "As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing
at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan.
We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and
more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not
hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided
desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq. " -By
Barack Obama -NYTimes
John
McCain - 
Czech
Republic - 
Slovakia
- History
- Russia
- Energy
- Military
- Phoenix
- Arizona
- US
- 2008
Election -Politics
"Note
to McCain: Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore."
... "This is almost certainly going to sound nitpicky, if not actually
petty, but bear with me. It’s not unreasonable to note that [2008 Election
Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain continues to make references
to a country that doesn’t exist." ... "At a press conference in Phoenix
[Arizona] today, for example, McCain referenced Czechoslovakia. Again."
"“I
was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took
in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.
Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech’s agreement with us concerning
missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are
now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the
Cold War, is also a concern. So we see the tensions between Russia and
their neighbors, as well as Russia and the United States are somewhat increasing.”"
"On
first blush, this sounds like more antagonistic rhetoric towards Russia
— which McCain wants to kick out of the G8 — which isn’t especially helpful."
... "But more importantly, Russia can’t “reduce energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”
Czechoslovakia, of course, doesn’t exist. It split into two countries more
than 15 years ago. McCain has actually been to the Czech Republic and Slovakia
since they became independent countries, and he’s met with their leaders."
... "First, as Greg
Sargent noted, McCain has made this same mistake more than once during
the campaign. About three months ago, McCain vowed to “work closely with
Czechoslovakia” on missile defense. Last fall, during a Republican debate,
McCain said: “The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile
defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don’t care
what his objections are to it.”" ... "Second, before Republicans condemn
Dems for being picky on this, let’s not forget that in the 2000 campaign,
when McCain also screwed up Czechoslovakia, it was none other than [Republican]
George W. Bush who said it deserved to be a campaign issue: “A guy gets
up and quizzes me [on world leaders] … but John McCain says something about
the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia
[there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia], but yet it didn’t make the nightly
national news." ... "But the raison d’etre of John McCain’s entire presidential
campaign is the notion that he’s an expert on foreign policy, thanks to
his decades of experience as a Washington insider. When the foreign policy
expert keeps referencing a non-existent country, it’s not unreasonable
to mention that maybe his expertise isn’t quite as impressive as his campaign
and the political media establishment would like us to believe." ... "McCain,
meanwhile, makes mistakes
like this all the time, almost always with no media scrutiny at all.”
-By Steve Benen -TheCarpetbaggerReport.com
20080707
Roger
Ailes - Terrorism
- Television
- Corporate
- Media
- Politics
- People
-
"When
Fox News Is the Story." ... "Like most working journalists,
whenever I type seven letters — Fox News [owned by Rupert Murdoch's News
Corporation (News Corp)] — a series of alarms begins to whoop in my head:
Danger.
Warning. Much mayhem ahead." ... "Once the public relations apparatus
at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening
(and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews
will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking
to." ... "And if all that stuff doesn’t slow me down and I actually end
up writing something, there might be a large hangover: Phone calls full
of rebuke for a dependent clause in the third to the last paragraph, a
ritual spanking in the blogs with anonymous quotes that sound very familiar,
and — if I really hit the jackpot — the specter of my ungainly headshot
appearing on one of Fox News’s shows along with some stern copy about what
an idiot I am." ... "Fox News found a huge runway and enormous success
by setting aside the conventions of bloodless objectivity, but along the
way, it altered the rules of engagement between reporters and the media
organizations they cover. Under its chief executive, [Republican media
strategist] Roger Ailes, Fox News and its public relations apparatus have
waged a permanent campaign on behalf of the channel that borrows its methodology
from his days as a senior political adviser to [Republican Presidents]
Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush." ... "At Fox News,
media relations is a kind of rolling opposition research operation intended
to keep reporters in line by feeding and sometimes maiming them. Shooting
the occasional messenger is baked right into the process." ... "As crude
as that sounds, it works. By blacklisting reporters it does not like, planting
stories with friendlies at every turn, Fox News has been living a life
beyond consequence for years." ... "Earlier this year, a colleague of mine
said, he was writing a story about CNN’s gains in the ratings and was told
on deadline by a Fox News public relations executive that if he persisted,
“they” would go after him. Within a day, “they” did, smearing him around
the blogs, he said. (I did not ask him for a comment because the information
was of a private nature.)" ... "[Fox News public relations head Brian]
Mr. Lewis denied that his staff had threatened one of my colleagues or
planted private information about him on blogs." ... "That comes as a surprise
to reporters I talked to who say they have received e-mail messages from
Fox News public relations staff that contained doctored photos, anonymous
quotes and nasty items about competitors. And two former Fox employees
said that they had participated in precisely those kinds of activities
but had signed confidentiality agreements and could not say so on the record.
" (1, 2,
3)
-By David
Carr -NYTimes
20080701
John
McCain - Poll
- 2008
Election
"Americans
Worry McCain Would Be Too Similar to Bush." ... "A
recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds about two in three Americans
concerned that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain
would pursue policies as president that are too similar to what [Republican
President] George W. Bush has pursued. Nearly half -- 49% -- say they are
"very concerned" about this." ... "McCain faces a challenge in trying to
convince voters to allow him to follow an unpopular president of the same
party. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has attempted to link McCain to
Bush by saying that electing McCain would effectively lead to a "third
Bush term." Although McCain remains competitive in head-to-head matchups
with Obama, the poll suggests that McCain may have more work to do to distance
himself from Bush." ... "It is clearly a delicate balancing act for McCain,
as Bush remains relatively popular with the Republican base. While only
28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a majority
of Republicans (60%) still do. Bush's approval rating among current McCain
supporters is slightly lower, at 55%." ... "Bush is deeply unpopular with
Democrats (only 6% approve), and 9 in 10 Democrats say they are concerned
that McCain's policies would be too similar to those of Bush. But among
independents -- a group to which McCain has demonstrated appeal -- most
are concerned about McCain-Bush similarities, including nearly half who
are very concerned. Even one in five Republicans are very concerned about
the similarities." -By Jeffrey M. Jones
-Gallup.com
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - Military
- Politics
- History
- Illinois
- 2008
Election
"McCain
In 2003: ‘I Absolutely Don’t Believe’ Military Service Alone Qualifies
Somebody For President." ... "This Sunday, on CBS’s
Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer commented
that [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator]
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL [Democratic-Illinois]) may not have the experience
to be president because he has not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten
shot down.” After having already expressed his
respect for McCain’s military record, [General] Gen. Wesley Clark responded
by arguing that “getting shot down is [not]
a qualification to be President.”" ... "Then, last night, on MSNBC’s
Veridct with Dan Abrams, Clark again reiterated that “this is an issue
about the qualifications to be President” and said, “I want to assure you
I would never, never diss someone’s service.”" ... "[Watch
Video of General Clark on McCain]" ... "Clark’s argument that military
service is not sufficient alone to be president is an argument that has
been made by
McCain himself:"
"-
During an interview with National Journal, John McCain was asked if “military
service inherently makes somebody better equipped to be commander-in-chief.”
McCain said, “Absolutely not…I absolutely don’t believe that it’s necessary.”
[National Journal, 2/15/2003]"
"-
I believe that military service is the most honorable endeavor an American
may undertake. But I’ve never believed that lack of military service
disqualifies one from occupying positions of political leadership or as
Commander and Chief. In America, the people are sovereign, and they
decide who is and is not qualified to lead us. [American Legion Speech,
9/7/1999]"
"-
Earlier this year at Washington’s Gridiron Club, where humor is the required
fare, McCain lay bare what underlies his candidacy. Wearing a jacket outlandishly
festooned with dozens of fake military medals, McCain said, “The question
I ask myself every morning while shaving in front of the mirror is: OK,
John, you’re an incredible war hero, an inspiration to all Americans. But
what qualifies you to be president of the United States?” [Minneapolis
Star Tribune, 11/7/1999]"
"In
fact, in an interview on NPR on May 1, 2004, McCain noted that “some of
our greatest presidents have not [had military experience]. … And all of
them turned out to be fine commanders in chief.” Thus, by his own admission,
McCain’s policies — not his military record — should determine if he is
qualified to be president." -ThinkProgress.org
20080630
John
McCain - Barack
Obama - 2008
Election - Military- Media
- Politics
"“Attacking”
McCain’s Military Record: What [General] Wesley Clark
really said; how the press missed it." ... "So: The latest round of mock
outrage—in a presidential race that has turned the tactic into an art form—now
comes in response to comments made by General Wesley Clark. Appearing as
a surrogate for Barack Obama on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, Clark, in reference
to John McCain, said:"
"I
certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war…But he hasn’t held executive
responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded—that
wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to
fall." ... "When moderator Bob Schieffer interjected that “Barack Obama
has not had any of those experiences, either, nor has he ridden in a fighter
plane and gotten shot down”, Clark responded: “Well, I don’t think riding
in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”"
"The
McCain camp, sensing an opportunity, complained that Clark had “attacked
John McCain’s military service record.” Of course, Clark had done nothing
of the kind. He had questioned the relevance of McCain’s combat experience
as a qualification to be president of the United States. This is a distinction
that you’d expect any reasonably intelligent nine-year old to be able to
grasp." ... "But many in the press have been unable to." -By
Zachary Roth -CJR.org
WATCH:
General Wes Clark on John McCain on Face the Nation June 29, 2008
John
McCain - 
Bud
Day -Politics
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election - Military
- History
"McCain’s
new Truth Squad has former member of Swift Boat Veterans."
... "Following the
lead of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama’s
campaign, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain
is establishing his own Truth Squad – an effort to “respond
to unfair attacks” on him military record. One of the members of McCain’s
new Truth Squad — Bud Day — was a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth, and appeared in an attack ad for the group in 2004. Day said of
[2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Kerry’s military
service: “My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the
Benedict Arnold of 1971.”" -ThinkProgress.org
20080627
David
Vitter - 
Larry
Craig - 
Sam
Brownback - 
James
Inhofe - Gay
- Family
- Law
- Politics
- La
- Idaho
- 
Kansas
- 
Oklahoma
"The
Federal Marriage Amendment is back — with Vitter’s and Craig’s support."
... "Republicans are looking at the political landscape, and they’re feeling
awfully discouraged. The polls look bad, the base looks depressed, and
fundraising looks iffy. Rallying the far-right troops with an anti-gay
amendment to the Constitution — even though it has no chance at even getting
so much as a hearing — might be helpful to the conservative movement."
... "But the funny part is looking over the list of the 10 original sponsors.
Most of the names are predictable — [Kansas Republican Senator Sam] Brownback
and [Oklahoma Republican Senator James] Inhofe, for example — but there
are two others whose names stand out: [Republican Senators] Sens. David
Vitter (R-La. [Republican-Louisiana]) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho [Republican])."
... "Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to
“protect” marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes
and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay sex
an airport men’s room." ... "As
my
friend Kyle put it, these two are “not exactly the poster boys of the
family values crowd or particularly upstanding examples of the supposed
sanctity of the ‘union of a man and a woman.”‘" -By
Steve Benen -TheCarpetbaggerReport.com
Grover
Norquist
- 
Jack
Abramoff
- John
McCain - Racial
- Politics
- History
- Military
- People
- Economic
- Illinois
- 2008
Election - Obama
"Norquist
describes Obama as ‘John Kerry with a tan’." ...
"Grover Norquist has quite a history of being unhinged. He’s said the Estate
Tax is morally
equivalent to the Nazi Holocaust; he’s called WWII veterans “anti-American,”
and he’s called bipartisanship “another name for date
rape.”" ... "But this clown isn’t done pushing
the envelope."
"Norquist
dropped by The [Los Angeles] Times’ Washington bureau today and, as part
of his negative critique of Obama’s liberal stances on economic issues
and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee
“John Kerry with a tan.”" ... "Since Norquist isn’t running for anything,
he can get away with such remarks; we doubt McCain will be incorporating
the line into his speeches anytime soon."
"Greg
Sargent responded,
“Guess it could have been worse. He could have termed the Illinois Senator
‘John Kerry in blackface.’ Such admirable restraint on Norquist’s part!"
... "Now, the LAT’s Don Frederick noted that Norquist can “get
away with such remarks,” presumably because he’s not a candidate and
everyone expects lunacy from him anyway. He’ll “get away with” this, just
as Norquist got away with the other instances of insane rhetoric, not to
mention his role in the Abramoff scandal, which somehow seems to have been
largely forgotten." ... "But I’m going to go ahead and argue that this
probably should matter in the context of the presidential campaign, not
just because Norquist is using offensive racial language, but also because
he’s suddenly best buddies with [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] John McCain." -Steve Benen
-TheCarpetbaggerReport.com
20080625
Faith
- Politics
- Justice
- Obama
- 2008
Election - "James
Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me." ... "Dr. James
Dobson recently attacked [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama for a 2006
speech that Obama gave on his Christian faith. Does he speak for you?"
... "James Dobson doesn't speak for me. He doesn't speak for me when he
uses religion as a wedge to divide; He doesn't speak for me when he speaks
as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible; James Dobson doesn't
speak for me when he uses the beliefs of others as a line of attack; He
doesn't speak for me when he denigrates his neighbor's views when they
don't line up with his; He doesn't speak for me when he seeks to confine
the values of my faith to two or three issues alone; What does speak for
me is David's psalm celebrating how good and pleasant it is when we come
together in unity; Micah speaks for me in reminding us that the Lord requires
us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him; The prophet
Isaiah speaks for me in his call for all to come and reason together and
also to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and to defend the cause of
the vulnerable; The book of Nehemiah speaks for me in its example to work
with our neighbors, not against them, to restore what was broken in our
communities; The book of Matthe
- Opinion Archive
