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I'm always for less regulation. But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight. ... But I am a fundamentally a deregulator. I'd like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated.
-WSJ via Think Progress
Just like the rest of his party, "original maverick" John McCain is a strict follower of the dogma of deregulation. Deregulation in the financial sector is exactly what lobbyists want. It allows for unrestricted Invisible Hand (+ Invisible Handouts) Economics. But it's not helping. It's not helping middle class Americans who feel the burn of an economic crisis, and it's not helping the upper class--or even the corporate class-either. Regulation doesn't just keep corporations from screwing the public; it keeps them from screwing each other.
Anybody who was listening to NPR around noon on Saturday heard all about Bush-appointee Chris Cox, absentee Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose modus operandi is as little regulation and enforcement as possible. How just in the past few months, he has said no to bipartisan offers from Congress for authority to find out whether (as is evident) credit rating companies are getting paid to lie to investors about how safe certain new securities are and said no to bipartisan offers from Congress for a bigger budget for enforcement.
This current crisis was caused by financial companies swindling each other into making and recommending investments that weren't nearly as safe as many were led to believe, and yet the first priority of Wall Street's top regulator is preserving the anarchy. Anarchy, as even the most basic examination of political philosophy, common sense, or current events will find, is bad for everyone.
But it should come as no surprise; the Republican Party has been pushing anarchy in business for decades; finally, they won, and this is what happened. It's a wonder people failed to see this coming.
This is simply part of a decades-old Republican assault on the American Dream, both for those who seek it and those who have achieved it. Trickle-down economics have been proven real in one sense: follow their dogma and you will end up with a trickle-down economic crisis. This isn't just bad for the people losing their jobs; it isn't just bad for the investors who are losing their money (from 401(k)'s to billion-dollar portfolios); it's bad for the corporations who hired the lobbyists and gave the money to the Republicans to create this mess.
The only people who benefit from this entirely avoidable and foreseeable state of affairs are those who bet against the United States of America.
Yet John McCain keeps pushing the same policies that got us here, promising more of the exact same while calling it "change", and insisting, 22 times this year and as recently as yesterday, that "the fundamentals of our economy our strong". I won't stoop to his level and accuse him of not putting Country First. I think he just drinks the kool aid His Friends give him.
The only people who have real job security during this Republican assault on the American Dream are the empty-suit political pawns who created it, and the fallen-from-on-high public servants who promise to stay the course. And that is precisely why it's time to show the Republican Party what real job insecurity feels like.
PS: "Republican Assault on the American Dream". Pass it on.
The Union Leader is happily assisting Fergus' new talking points about Jeanne Shaheen and nuclear energy. No surprise there.
But as long as we're taking a trip down memory lane, is there anyone in our state (or national media) who would mind bringing up the fact that radical community disorganizer John E. Sununu once campaigned proudly for abolishing the Department of Education?
Or that Jeb Bradley has flirted with the Social Security privatization bandwagon on more than one occasion?
Or that Cold War II Warrior John McCain supported closing the Portsmouth Naval Base, a decade before he used it as a backdrop prop to announce his candidacy?
Plenty of memories of how badly Republicans behaved during the Clinton years are ready and available for reporters who choose to dig. Just sayin'.
Sarah Palin is good with a gun and spunky and she gives a good speech. She is also totally unprepared to be vice-president or heaven forbid, president of the United States. Given that John McCain would be the oldest first term president in our history, the idea of a President Palin is too close for comfort.
Remember how shocking it was when Tim Russert died suddenly?
When Russert died it was obvious that no one had the experience and depth of knowledge to take his place on Meet the Press during an election year. Heavyweight Tom Brokaw is standing in for now. Imagine if an unknown sportscaster with no experience with national politics--someone who didn't know the issues or the players, had replaced Russert. Could someone cram hard enough in a week to ask tough follow up questions of people like Barack Obama, John McCain, President George Bush and the other leaders who frequent Meet the Press?
That would be absurd of course. The American people deserve better. No network in its right mind would do that.
That's what makes John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin so bizarre and so irresponsible.
We have higher standards for the people who ask the important questions of the day than we do for the people who (should) answer them.
That's why the McCain Campaign is keeping her isolated from the press. When will she face tough questioning from Tom Brokaw or George Stephanopoulos? Probably not until the televised debates.
Palin did agree to an interview with Charlie Gibson. She had to appear someplace to avoid making headlines for avoidance. She squeaked by with scripted phrases like I "didn't blink," we "can't blink" and we shouldn't "second guess" our allies. She had no idea what the Bush Doctrine is.
She squeaked by, but looked very uncomfortable doing it.
Much of the media has given her a pass so far. They cover the important issues like lipstick on pigs and contrived cultural warfare. Pathetic.
The responsible press, however, recognizes that with just seven weeks to Election Day it's time to dig hard and unearth the real Sarah Palin.
An hour ago I read an in-depth piece in the Sunday New York Times. The Times reporters interviewed dozens of Alaskans to flesh out the canned Palin the McCain/Rove campaign has served us.
I'm predicting that the trooper fiasco we've been hearing about is just the tip of the iceberg. Palin has packed government with old friends. Many go back to her high school days. She also has an inclination to overstep the bounds of public office. From settling scores, firing people who don't do her bidding, to pressuring librarians to remove books about homosexual dads from their shelves, Sarah Palin can't seem to keep her personal agenda in check.
Lastly, Palin thinks she's so special that knows God's will. Then she lies to Charlie Gibson and the American people about it.
If anyone who has seen the tapes of her invoking God's blessing on the Iraq war really believes that Palin was just echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln-well, I've got a Bridge in Alaska I'd like to sell you.
McNascar in New Hampshire: If only you had agreed to my phony campaign wedge issue, I wouldn't have had to lie to America that you want to teach kindergartners about sex before they can read:
Asked if he was sorry about the negative turn the campaign has taken, McCain repeated what he said last week, after his campaign blasted Obama for his "lipstick on a pig" remark - it could have been avoided had Obama joined him in regular, town hall-style meetings.
"If we'd have done it every several days, that would have been really what the campaign coverage would have been about," he said. It's not too late, he added.
And it's your fault I have to say this surrounded by race cars and spectators instead of in a town hall.
And while we're at it, if you hadn't been cruising to such an easy victory, I wouldn't have had to pick the most shallowly political, least qualified Vice Presidential candidate in memory. And America, my friends, it's all your fault you all might be my heartbeat away from someone who isn't intellectually curious enough to know what the Bush Doctrine is, but who has betrayed a governing style that is intuitively Bush Doctrinaire.
Ever since the Spawn of Rove took over McFailing's campaign, they've been limiting his trademark "Town Halls," since they are well aware that in the age of YouTube, Maverick McCain is easily revealed as Say Anything McSame. And indeed, fresh of some disastrous press events without Palin (the top of the ticket), I can understand why they'd want to hide him from actual voter scrutiny.
So instead of honoring the type of New Hampshire primary campaign he constantly brags about, McCain flak Tucker Bounds, with the help of the Fournier led AP, spins like a top about today's Nascar event:
"In a state like New Hampshire, no one knows better than John McCain that it's direct voter contact that sways the electorate. Seizing the opportunity to meet with voters on a large stage in New Hampshire makes an enormous amount of sense," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Yeah. House parties and town halls are exactly the same as an audience of thousands of spectators there to watch cars race around a track.
In the process of tracking down some shady characters from our political past (Charles Black and Roger Stone, the original dirty tricksters and mentors of Karl Rove), I ran across a couple of operatives who have graced New Hampshire with their skills and who seem to share a particular talent to have their work histories disappear.
Or, as Alexander Cockburn describes it in The Nation:
Take the Associated Press. On February 24 the news agency runs a story by Nedra Pickler under the headline Conservatives Say Obama Lacks Patriotism. Pickler's fourth sentence cites, as her story's lead source, Roger Stone, chastely described as a "Republican consultant."
This is the same Roger Stone who appeared with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC a few days earlier to promote an anti-Clinton 527 group, Citizens United Not Timid, or CUNT. "The more people go to the site," Stone had smirked to The Weekly Standard in January, "the more people buy the T-shirts.... The more people wear the T-shirts, the more people are educated. Consequently, our mission has been achieved."
There's a good reason why legislators aren't usually promoted into the executive. When people do nothing but write laws and review how they work, they get used to doing things over.
But, when the commander-in-chief sends our sons and daughters off to be killed in a foreign land, there's no undoing that. There's no do-over in Iraq, John McCain.
When one of our cities is allowed to drown and the residents have to flee for their lives, there's no do-over in New Orleans, either, George Bush.
When our children die at an early age from vaccines that aren't properly made, there's no do-over, FDA.
When our foods are infected with salmonella, there's not a do-over there, either.
I think he's a shameless, dishonorable Pander Bear too, but it's weird coming out of the mouth of Jennifer Palin, who has rushed headlong to recreate herself into the Mayor of Wasilla, New Hampshire:
In an interview for the HDNet program "Dan Rather Reports", Horn levied an insult at Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, saying "I think that his pandering does bother me, it's one of the big issues I have with Senator McCain right now." She has also touted the endorsement of comedian Jackie Mason, who considers McCain a "lowlife".
It has become a commonly cited statistic here at BH that New Hampshire receives back $0.67 for every dollar it contributes in federal taxes, and Alaska receives $1.83 to the dollar. Now, we can't expect every state to get a dollar for every dollar, because that would mean the government would be spending nothing on the mechanics of government (like the judicial system, the military, etc as opposed to functions like the postal service, national parks, road subsidies, etc), but that figure in Alaska is pretty egregious.
CNN reports today Governor Palin's federal earmark requests in her first year in office (2007)--and that's just Palin's things, not everything her delegation takes--exceed the total amount of earmark money taken by the entire bi-partisan delegation from New Hampshire, a state with about twice as many people.
New Hampshire's delegation requested took 238 million dollars in earmark money. Governor Palin requested 256 million. Her state's Congressional delegation took a combined total of over 486 million dollars, 456 of which by Senator Stevens--who, by the way, is a longtime political ally, advocate, and collaborator of Palin, not simply another Republican from her state.
Alaska takes more money per person in earmark money than any other state.
And to top it all off, the $27 million in earmarks Palin secured as Mayor of a town of 5,000 people--far more than many members of Congress take in a year, and Congressional districts are generally more than a hundred times the size of Wasilla. On three separate occasions, Palin projects in Wasilla met criticism ("objectionable" on McCain's regularly published pork lists) at the time from Senator John McCain, whose campaign was recently asked about that very same money. Respondeth McCain's people,
Towns like Wasilla in Alaska depended on earmarks to take care of basic needs.
A big change from making a point to object. Furthermore, if that's true, then when he promises to veto any bill with earmarks, isn't John McCain screwing Small Town America?
This issue is vitally important; it may be the only real thing McCain is talking about changing.
h/t in part to CNN
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...
http://www.congress.org/congre...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...
http://marcambinder.theatlanti...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c...
Okay- the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind- with visits to newly found Alaska blogs, reading about money taken for bridges to nowhere, moose stew, and creationsism.
But this election is not about Sarah Palin. For anyone to make the decision be about her, or about her qualifications, is to fall for the Rovian strategy. You have to hand it to him and McCain- it was a good move- caught everyone off guard in multiple ways.
I strongly recommend Andrew Sullivan's post today, about how far John McCain has fallen.
here
I knew it - the Palin pick is poison for a state like ours. The older, yankee Republicans are repulsed by such a reckless choice, and the undeclared women of this state are far smarter than John McCain gives them credit for:
The CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation polls were conducted Sunday through Tuesday, with 966 registered voters in Michigan, 940 registered voters in Missouri, 899 registered voters in New Hampshire, and 920 registered voters in Virginia questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points in Michigan, Missouri and New Hampshire and 3.5 percentage points in New Hampshire.
A nicely sized sample, and registered voters. Awesome.
I'll put up more detail on this poll if/when I can find it.
Update: Thank you Garth! Check out the numbers on women and older voters in the poll. Barracuda!
Among men: Obama 46, McCain 48 Among women: Obama 56, McCain 41
Among whites: Obama 51, McCain 44
Among voters under 50: Obama 48, McCain 46 Among voters older than 50: Obama 54, McCain 42
Among voters making under $50,000/year: Obama 59, McCain 38
Among voters making more than $50,000/year: Obama 49, McCain 46
1) I can't make it to the Biden event today, so if anyone is there and does a decent write-up of it (pix would be great, but not necessary), we'll happily put it on the Front Page.
2) The latest McCain ad is perhaps the lowest form of putrescence I've seen in national political advertising - ever. Forget how extremist, corrupt, Palin has motivated Dems into action - this ad has shown me what a dishonorable, vermin-like, homunculus John McCain is. It should motivate all of us into making sure this reckless, mendacious creature never becomes our Commander-in-Chief. If there were ever a time to do more for Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen and Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes and every other Dem on the ticket, now's the time. Donate, phonebank, canvass, visibility, vote. Rinse and repeat.
18,346 - that's the number of Republicans who voted for Ron Paul in the New Hampshire Primary, according to the SoS.
And that could mean 18,346 fewer votes for John McCain here:
Paul, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, will tell supporters he is not endorsing GOP nominee John McCain or Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and will instead give his seal of approval to four candidates: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, according to a senior Paul aide.
And as fortune would have it, Barr and Nader both made it on the ballot for this November.
Obama's new ad today on McCain's (lack of) education policy:
What was that? Abolish the Department of Education???
Where have I heard such radical right fringe talk before? Hmmm... Oh yeah, this is it:
(Sununu has) pledged to work against all tax increases and abolish the Energy, Education, Housing and Commerce departments.
So hard to pin John E. down. One minute he's running hard right with Palin on denying that humans have anything to do with Climate Change, and the next he's dashing away from entire federal departments with McSame. But I guess that's why they call him the Sprinter.
"The Stonewall Democrats" has for years been a very active nationwide group of gays and lesbians. There's a branch in New Hampshire, and the members of the organization have successfully advocated for important equality issues for the LGBT community, and fought all kinds of discrimination.
There's a similar -- well, that's not quite the word I'm looking for -- organization in the Republican Party. It's called the "Log Cabin Republicans," and from its inception it's been a confused grouping of mostly in-the-closet gay Republicans (their fellow Republicans prefer it that way -- out of sight, out of mind).
Guess what. After supposedly being on the fence for a bit, the Log Cabin Republicans has given its formal endorsement to Senator John McCain, the man who would be President.
And this man who would be President has chosen a Vice Presidential nominee who is opposed to gay marriages, gay civil unions, even equality in the recognition of domestic relationships. She also believes in creationism, and wants to see it taught in schools. Gays and lesbians aren't in any chapter of the creationism textbooks, by the way. No room for us in that view of the Earth.
And this woman who would be Vice President also believes that gays and lesbians can be taught, through prayer, to be "straight."
Oh, and did I mention that the Log Cabin Republicans is still part of a political party that in its official platform advocates a Constitutional Amendment to define "marriage" as only between "one man" and "one woman?" The Log Cabin Republicans are associated with a national party that wants to forever provide discrimination -- and write that discrimination against human beings into our Constitutional. Thank you very much, the Loggies apparently say.
Ohhhh what we're learning about Sarah Palin. And the "real John McCain" is coming out now too -- he's not the maverick he's pretended to be; that's all image and fluff.
The Log Cabin Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. And of their party and their candidates.
If only a campaign commercial could be four and a half minutes long, this would be the one to air over and over again. You haven't seen an account of McCain's transformation this biting and concise.
The Daily Show presents the bio video you didn't see in St. Paul:
It's November 19, 2004, a mere two weeks after the election that returned George W. Bush to power, and Senator John McCain has traipsed off to New Hampshire to give a speech calling for 50,000 more troops to be sent into the quagmire of Iraq, press flesh and raise money for an expected run at the presidency in 2008. John Sununu, former New Hampshire governor and Bush family consigliere, wryly quipped about McCain's junket to the Granite State, "What took him so long?"
Eight weeks before election day:
A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won't submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she's ready -- and until she's comfortable -- which might not be for a long while -- the media will have to wait. The campaign believes it can effectively deal with the media's complaints, and their on-the-record response to all this will be: "Sarah Palin needs to spend time with the voters."
I think these two snippets speak volumes about John McCain's ambition and judgment.
I said it before, but it bears repeating - how would Sarah Palin have done here had she campaigned during our First in the Nation primary?
And as a thought experiment: how would Dick Cheney have fared here? Because he's worked out really well as VP, hasn't he?
There you have it. Proof positive. I've been opining for several months that the McCain campaign is entirely fixated on itself and that, when it goes on the attack, it's actually trying to cover up a deficit it recognizes in its own candidate.
For example, when the issue du jour was "executive experience" and the supposed lack thereof on the part of a candidate who'd organized more than two million voter/donors on the ground, that was clearly an effort to distract us from the fact that John McCain can't even keep track of how many houses he has--because he never pays the bills!
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