Arizona's racial profiling law, SB 1070, is built on lies promoted by political opportunists like Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer and Senator John McCain who utilize fear as an effective political weapon. Hard working families who contribute to making all of our lives better are their unjust targets.
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reports:
Jan Brewer has lost her head
The Arizona governor, seemingly determined to repel every last tourist dollar from her pariah state, has sounded a new alarm about border violence. "Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded," she announced on local television.
Ay, caramba! Those dark-skinned foreigners are now severing the heads of fair-haired Americans? Maybe they're also scalping them or shrinking them or putting them on a spike.
But those in fear of losing parts north of the neckline can relax. There's not a follicle of evidence to support Brewer's claim.
The Arizona Guardian Web site checked with medical examiners in Arizona's border counties, and the coroners said they had never seen an immigration-related beheading. I called and e-mailed Brewer's press office requesting documentation of decapitation; no reply.
Brewer's mindlessness about headlessness is just one of the immigration falsehoods being spread by Arizona politicians. Border violence on the rise? Phoenix becoming the world's No. 2 kidnapping capital? Illegal immigrants responsible for most police killings? The majority of those crossing the border are drug mules? All wrong.
This matters, because it means the entire premise of the Arizona immigration law is a fallacy. Arizona officials say they've had to step in because federal officials aren't doing enough to stem increasing border violence. The scary claims of violence, in turn, explain why the American public supports the Arizona crackdown.
The entire article is linked
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
What would you tell my mother?
A few weeks ago I spoke to the residents of a senior center in Milwaukee's central city.
It was diverse group of older working class men and women - a Vietnam vet, a disabled County employee, a retiree from A.O.Smith, a retired nurse. Not surprisingly, all were supporting Barack Obama.
After the discussion, a couple of women approached me with a concern. I had heard before when a colleague told me that her 82 year old mother and several friends were afraid to vote for Barack Obama because they feared for his life.
My colleague wrote her mother: “…if Dr. King had not made the sacrifice that he did for our nation we would not be where we are today...I am sure that Barack and Michelle have discussed his safety and are willing to make the sacrifice. By not voting you will be silently voting for MaCain and Palin.”
She asked me: “What else can we tell this population of potential voters that feel this way Mike?”
I replied: “Your mother is right that when the status quo is challenged there is push back.”
Little did I know at that time that the McCain Palin campaign would launch the most vicious personal attacks on a presidential candidate in recent history.
I continued:
Your mother knows better than I Frederick Douglas' truth that “...without struggle, there is no progress…that power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”
But history is informed by Douglas' insight. Let me tell you a story about my family that you could share with your mother.
When the Nazis were rounding up the Jews in Europe, many good people,
including some Jews, argued that to resist would make things worse. Six
million innocent people perished.
I had two aunts (women who survived and married my uncles) who were captured by the Nazis. One was imprisoned in Auschwitz. Her father, mother and youngest sister were murdered. She, her sister and brother were old enough to work so they were sparred.
My other aunt, Mariam, was 13 years old, a child really, when Hitler's army invaded Poland. Her brothers, 18 and 19, were captured, strip naked and shot as she watched. Later she also witnessed the murder of her older sister and child.
A local farmer hid my aunt. He provided her with a baptismal certificate, a medallion, some bread and water and said “Tomorrow is Sunday, lots of people will be on the road. Start walking and don't look back.” She did.
Eventually she was captured. Her life was spared, but she was enslaved for several years.
My aunts, both now dead, didn't often talk about that period of their lives. They took the farmers’ advice and tried not to look back. They lived with demons to be sure. But they tried to lead their lives with a dignity that belied their experience.
My parents made sure I knew this history. They believed that silence in the face of injustice equals complicity; that without struggle there is no progress.
So what would I tell your mother?
I would tell her that the blood and sweat, the hopes and dreams of her parents and those who came before are now embodied in the movement to elect Barack Obama. He carries my aunts’ dreams for a decent world as well. If we let him down, out of fear, we are letting anyone who has been unfairly treated or struggled for justice down, and we are letting ourselves, our children and their children down as well.
Barack is demonstrating that we have one life and we should live it with purpose. Talk to your mother. We need her vote. My aunts needs her vote. History needs her vote.
VOTE FOR CHANGE ON NOVEMBER 4th! VOTE!
It was diverse group of older working class men and women - a Vietnam vet, a disabled County employee, a retiree from A.O.Smith, a retired nurse. Not surprisingly, all were supporting Barack Obama.
After the discussion, a couple of women approached me with a concern. I had heard before when a colleague told me that her 82 year old mother and several friends were afraid to vote for Barack Obama because they feared for his life.
My colleague wrote her mother: “…if Dr. King had not made the sacrifice that he did for our nation we would not be where we are today...I am sure that Barack and Michelle have discussed his safety and are willing to make the sacrifice. By not voting you will be silently voting for MaCain and Palin.”
She asked me: “What else can we tell this population of potential voters that feel this way Mike?”
I replied: “Your mother is right that when the status quo is challenged there is push back.”
Little did I know at that time that the McCain Palin campaign would launch the most vicious personal attacks on a presidential candidate in recent history.
I continued:
Your mother knows better than I Frederick Douglas' truth that “...without struggle, there is no progress…that power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”
But history is informed by Douglas' insight. Let me tell you a story about my family that you could share with your mother.
When the Nazis were rounding up the Jews in Europe, many good people,
including some Jews, argued that to resist would make things worse. Six
million innocent people perished.
I had two aunts (women who survived and married my uncles) who were captured by the Nazis. One was imprisoned in Auschwitz. Her father, mother and youngest sister were murdered. She, her sister and brother were old enough to work so they were sparred.
My other aunt, Mariam, was 13 years old, a child really, when Hitler's army invaded Poland. Her brothers, 18 and 19, were captured, strip naked and shot as she watched. Later she also witnessed the murder of her older sister and child.
A local farmer hid my aunt. He provided her with a baptismal certificate, a medallion, some bread and water and said “Tomorrow is Sunday, lots of people will be on the road. Start walking and don't look back.” She did.
Eventually she was captured. Her life was spared, but she was enslaved for several years.
My aunts, both now dead, didn't often talk about that period of their lives. They took the farmers’ advice and tried not to look back. They lived with demons to be sure. But they tried to lead their lives with a dignity that belied their experience.
My parents made sure I knew this history. They believed that silence in the face of injustice equals complicity; that without struggle there is no progress.
So what would I tell your mother?
I would tell her that the blood and sweat, the hopes and dreams of her parents and those who came before are now embodied in the movement to elect Barack Obama. He carries my aunts’ dreams for a decent world as well. If we let him down, out of fear, we are letting anyone who has been unfairly treated or struggled for justice down, and we are letting ourselves, our children and their children down as well.
Barack is demonstrating that we have one life and we should live it with purpose. Talk to your mother. We need her vote. My aunts needs her vote. History needs her vote.
VOTE FOR CHANGE ON NOVEMBER 4th! VOTE!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
McCain and Palin have crossed the line with their McCarthyite attacks
I received another McCain campaign mailer this weekend claiming that Barack Obama is a terrorist.
Enough is enough!
McCain, Palin and the Republican Party have crossed the line with their McCarthyite attempt to associate Barack Obama with Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground. Their irresponsible and dishonest ads are promoting an atmosphere of fear and anger that increases the potential for violence against Barack Obama and his campaign volunteers.
Barack Obama is a United States Senator, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, constitutional law professor, and community organizer and a candidate for the President of the United States. His Grandfather fought in World War II. His Grandmother, gravely ill, was a bank Vice President.
He is no more a terrorist than I am the Pope!
Obama was 8 years old when Bill Ayers was active in the Weather Underground. The fact that Obama and Ayers, Chicago's Citizen of the Year in 1997, have served on some philanthropic boards together and live in the same neighborhood is irrelevant. I serve on several boards and know nothing about the personal or political histories of my fellow directors. Nor do I have any control over my neighbors political activities or their past actions even though I have been welcomed into their homes.
William C. Ibershof, the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen in the 1970s, recently repudiated McCain's efforts when he wrote::" I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child."
It's a thoughtful letter that repudiates the McCain campaign's unprincipled attempt to malign Barack Obama for events that he had no role in.
McCain's suggestion that Obama condones violence and intimidation to pursue political objectives turns American history on its head.
Violence and terror have mainly been used as political weapons by the American right wing.
Following the Civil War the planter class that had provoked the War by seceding organized violent, white supremacist paramilitary organizations like the White League in Louisiana and the the Red Shirts in Mississippi, North and South Carolina, to terrorize and murder African- Americans for exercising their newly won freedoms.
Black political participation declined precipitously, reconstruction was betrayed and African Americans were stripped of their constitutional rights for almost 100 years.
The terrorist Ku Klux Klan enforced the post-reconstruction system of racial segregation (Jim Crow) throughout the south through beatings, cutting off fingers, burning down houses, and destroying the crops of African Americans.
Murder was common. There were 5,000 lynchings which were often treated like festivals by white families enjoying the spectacle of execution as entertainment in the post Civil War period. More often, victims were lynched by a small group of white vigilantes under the cover of night. While hanging was most common, some victims were beaten, burned, stabbed, shot, or slowly tortured to death.
Violence was also been routinely used against American workers for trying to bring democracy to the workplace. Workers were routinely fired, evicted from the company owned housing, beaten and murdered for simply trying to organize. From the Colorado and West Virginia coal wars through Andrew Carnegie's use of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to the Henry Ford's secret police headed by the notorious Harry Bennett, terror was employed by employers against their own employees.
Enough is enough!
McCain, Palin and the Republican Party have crossed the line with their McCarthyite attempt to associate Barack Obama with Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground. Their irresponsible and dishonest ads are promoting an atmosphere of fear and anger that increases the potential for violence against Barack Obama and his campaign volunteers.
Barack Obama is a United States Senator, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, constitutional law professor, and community organizer and a candidate for the President of the United States. His Grandfather fought in World War II. His Grandmother, gravely ill, was a bank Vice President.
He is no more a terrorist than I am the Pope!
Obama was 8 years old when Bill Ayers was active in the Weather Underground. The fact that Obama and Ayers, Chicago's Citizen of the Year in 1997, have served on some philanthropic boards together and live in the same neighborhood is irrelevant. I serve on several boards and know nothing about the personal or political histories of my fellow directors. Nor do I have any control over my neighbors political activities or their past actions even though I have been welcomed into their homes.
William C. Ibershof, the lead federal prosecutor of the Weathermen in the 1970s, recently repudiated McCain's efforts when he wrote::" I am amazed and outraged that Senator Barack Obama is being linked to William Ayers’s terrorist activities 40 years ago when Mr. Obama was, as he has noted, just a child."
It's a thoughtful letter that repudiates the McCain campaign's unprincipled attempt to malign Barack Obama for events that he had no role in.
McCain's suggestion that Obama condones violence and intimidation to pursue political objectives turns American history on its head.
Violence and terror have mainly been used as political weapons by the American right wing.
Following the Civil War the planter class that had provoked the War by seceding organized violent, white supremacist paramilitary organizations like the White League in Louisiana and the the Red Shirts in Mississippi, North and South Carolina, to terrorize and murder African- Americans for exercising their newly won freedoms.
Black political participation declined precipitously, reconstruction was betrayed and African Americans were stripped of their constitutional rights for almost 100 years.
The terrorist Ku Klux Klan enforced the post-reconstruction system of racial segregation (Jim Crow) throughout the south through beatings, cutting off fingers, burning down houses, and destroying the crops of African Americans.
Murder was common. There were 5,000 lynchings which were often treated like festivals by white families enjoying the spectacle of execution as entertainment in the post Civil War period. More often, victims were lynched by a small group of white vigilantes under the cover of night. While hanging was most common, some victims were beaten, burned, stabbed, shot, or slowly tortured to death.
Violence was also been routinely used against American workers for trying to bring democracy to the workplace. Workers were routinely fired, evicted from the company owned housing, beaten and murdered for simply trying to organize. From the Colorado and West Virginia coal wars through Andrew Carnegie's use of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to the Henry Ford's secret police headed by the notorious Harry Bennett, terror was employed by employers against their own employees.
More recently, terror was used by states rights extremists against Americans organizing non-violently to extend citizenship rights to African Americans.
Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Michael Schwerner Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Viola Liuzzo among others were brutally murdered. Others were viciously beaten, including Georgia Congressman John Lewis, and hosed. Bombings, most notoriously of the 16th Street Baptist Church, were frequent.
Pro-life terrorists bombed and burned women's health clinics and murdered doctors who performed legal abortions more than 150 times between 1982 and 1996.
McCain and Palin's attempt to undermine Barack Obama's growing support by labeling him a terrorist has not worked.
It won't because he is not and because the American people have real concerns like the losing their jobs, their homes, their life savings, their health care and their sons in daughters in an ill conceived war. But by suggesting that Barack Obama is a terrorist and associating him with the 9/11 attack on America, McCain and Palin are creating an atmosphere of hate and fear that is fertile ground for extremists among their followers.If there is, God forbid, an attack on Barack Obama, the blood will be on their hands.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Powell endorses Obama criticizes negative campaigning
Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president on Sunday morning as a candidate who was reaching out in a “more diverse and inclusive way across our society” and criticized the McCain campaign for its negative campaign.
The endorsement, on the NBC public affairs program “Meet the Press,” was a major blow to Senator John McCain, who has been a good friend of Mr. Powell for decades.
Mr. Powell told reporters after the taping of “Meet the Press” that he had been disturbed in recent weeks by the negative tone of Mr. McCain’s campaign, particularly its focus on Mr. Obama’s passing relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s radical and founder of the Weather Underground. The McCain campaign has sought to promote the idea that Mr. Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” in the words of Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, because of Mr. Obama’s weak links to Mr. Ayers.
“I thought that was over the top,” Mr. Powell told reporters. “It was beyond just good political fighting back and forth.”
Mr. Powell also told reporters on Sunday that he was troubled that a number of Americans believe that Mr. Obama is a Muslim, although he did not directly link that supposition to the McCain campaign.
In his interview he criticized those suggesting Obama is Mulsim on factual grounds because Obama is a Christian. But Powell went on, citing the a death in combat of a Muslim American soldier, to say that Muslim Americans are citizens with the same rights as all Americans.
He also pointed out the negative impact the Republican campaign tactics are having internationally: “These are the kinds of images going out on Al Jazeera that are killing us around the world. And we have got to say to the world it doesn’t make any difference who you are and what you are. If you’re an American you’re an American.”
The endorsement, on the NBC public affairs program “Meet the Press,” was a major blow to Senator John McCain, who has been a good friend of Mr. Powell for decades.
Mr. Powell told reporters after the taping of “Meet the Press” that he had been disturbed in recent weeks by the negative tone of Mr. McCain’s campaign, particularly its focus on Mr. Obama’s passing relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s radical and founder of the Weather Underground. The McCain campaign has sought to promote the idea that Mr. Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” in the words of Mr. McCain’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, because of Mr. Obama’s weak links to Mr. Ayers.
“I thought that was over the top,” Mr. Powell told reporters. “It was beyond just good political fighting back and forth.”
Mr. Powell also told reporters on Sunday that he was troubled that a number of Americans believe that Mr. Obama is a Muslim, although he did not directly link that supposition to the McCain campaign.
In his interview he criticized those suggesting Obama is Mulsim on factual grounds because Obama is a Christian. But Powell went on, citing the a death in combat of a Muslim American soldier, to say that Muslim Americans are citizens with the same rights as all Americans.
He also pointed out the negative impact the Republican campaign tactics are having internationally: “These are the kinds of images going out on Al Jazeera that are killing us around the world. And we have got to say to the world it doesn’t make any difference who you are and what you are. If you’re an American you’re an American.”
Friday, October 17, 2008
McCain's policies won't help workers
In an editorial on the third presidential debate, the New York Times observed:
...it’s a shame that Mr. McCain hasn’t come up with policies that would actually help workers. Instead, he’s served up the same-old trickle-down theories and a government-is-wrong, markets-are-right fervor that helped create this economic disaster.
Wednesday night’s debate was another chance for Mr. McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this country out of its deep economic crisis. But he had one answer to almost every economic question: cut taxes and government spending. Unfortunately, what Mr. McCain means is to cut taxes for the richest Americans and, inevitably, to reduce the kinds of government services that working Americans need more than ever. ..
Mr. McCain’s biggest problem is that he has no big ideas for fixing the country’s problems. His speech on the economy this week was replete with seriously bad ones, starting with cutting the already very low capital gains tax in half. That won’t rescue the economy. What it will do is dig the government further into debt while making the current tax structure that rewards the rich even more unfair.
Mr. McCain made more sense when he proposed eliminating income tax on unemployment benefits in 2008 and 2009. He would have done a lot more for struggling Americans if he had pressed his party earlier this month to help extend expiring unemployment benefits.
Mr. McCain says he wants to help Americans threatened with foreclosure by using federal money to purchase loans that exceed the value of the home. A better approach — one that would not overburden the taxpayer — would be to allow a bankruptcy court judge to modify mortgage terms. Mr. Obama has long supported that change. Mr. McCain has not.
Mr. Obama has better ideas to respond to the financial crisis and to put the economy back on the right track. He supports a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and more money for states and localities, both of which would quickly bring relief beyond Wall Street.
Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation. Mr. McCain wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent — a big break for the top 1 percent of society. Mr. Obama would cut taxes for low- and moderate-income families and raise them for richer Americans.
As for how Mr. McCain would create jobs, his big idea in Tuesday’s speech — surprise, surprise — was that “the most effective way a president can do this” is to use “tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs.” After the last eight years, that pinched view of government ought to sound depressingly familiar to the millions of Americans who are still waiting for that downward trickle of prosperity.
...it’s a shame that Mr. McCain hasn’t come up with policies that would actually help workers. Instead, he’s served up the same-old trickle-down theories and a government-is-wrong, markets-are-right fervor that helped create this economic disaster.
Wednesday night’s debate was another chance for Mr. McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this country out of its deep economic crisis. But he had one answer to almost every economic question: cut taxes and government spending. Unfortunately, what Mr. McCain means is to cut taxes for the richest Americans and, inevitably, to reduce the kinds of government services that working Americans need more than ever. ..
Mr. McCain’s biggest problem is that he has no big ideas for fixing the country’s problems. His speech on the economy this week was replete with seriously bad ones, starting with cutting the already very low capital gains tax in half. That won’t rescue the economy. What it will do is dig the government further into debt while making the current tax structure that rewards the rich even more unfair.
Mr. McCain made more sense when he proposed eliminating income tax on unemployment benefits in 2008 and 2009. He would have done a lot more for struggling Americans if he had pressed his party earlier this month to help extend expiring unemployment benefits.
Mr. McCain says he wants to help Americans threatened with foreclosure by using federal money to purchase loans that exceed the value of the home. A better approach — one that would not overburden the taxpayer — would be to allow a bankruptcy court judge to modify mortgage terms. Mr. Obama has long supported that change. Mr. McCain has not.
Mr. Obama has better ideas to respond to the financial crisis and to put the economy back on the right track. He supports a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and more money for states and localities, both of which would quickly bring relief beyond Wall Street.
Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation. Mr. McCain wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent — a big break for the top 1 percent of society. Mr. Obama would cut taxes for low- and moderate-income families and raise them for richer Americans.
As for how Mr. McCain would create jobs, his big idea in Tuesday’s speech — surprise, surprise — was that “the most effective way a president can do this” is to use “tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs.” After the last eight years, that pinched view of government ought to sound depressingly familiar to the millions of Americans who are still waiting for that downward trickle of prosperity.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
McCain not Bush, but voted with him 90% of the time
Last night John McCain tried to distance himself from George Bush when he said: "I'm not George Bush."
In his latest ad, Barack Obama responds:"You may not be George Bush, but you voted with him 90% of the time."
In his latest ad, Barack Obama responds:"You may not be George Bush, but you voted with him 90% of the time."
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
McCain smear campaign has crossed the line!
There is a fine line between a smear campaign and an incitement to violence. The McCain Palin campaign has crossed that line.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Robert Kennedy-McCain, Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party!
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., noting that Sarah Palin and her husband have been affiliated as recently as two years ago with the Alaskan Independence Party whose aim is to secede from the United States asks:"... isn't it time the media start giving equal time to Palin's buddy list of anti-American bombers and other radical associates?
It's a thoughtful indictment of the McCain Palin campaign's use of McCarthy era-guilt-by- association tactics and of the media for allowing itself to be manipulated into focusing on non- issues.
It's linked here and worth the read.
It's a thoughtful indictment of the McCain Palin campaign's use of McCarthy era-guilt-by- association tactics and of the media for allowing itself to be manipulated into focusing on non- issues.
It's linked here and worth the read.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Wisconsin's role in election becomes even more important
Wisconsin' role in electing the next President of the United States just got bigger according to an article by Mike Allen in Politico.
Mike DuHaime (R-Ariz.), John McCain's political director, says that Senator McCain must win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to get enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
All three were considered swing states in 2000 and 2004, but George W. Bush lost them both times. “Our ability to pick off one of those three states is where our fortunes are largely held,”DuHaime said.
McCain figures that winning one of those three big remaining swing states, plus those he considers safe, would put him 10 shy of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.
McCain has very limited ways to win, with no room for error.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) still has many routes to the White House and so can afford to campaign on a much broader playing field.
Mike DuHaime (R-Ariz.), John McCain's political director, says that Senator McCain must win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to get enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
All three were considered swing states in 2000 and 2004, but George W. Bush lost them both times. “Our ability to pick off one of those three states is where our fortunes are largely held,”DuHaime said.
McCain figures that winning one of those three big remaining swing states, plus those he considers safe, would put him 10 shy of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.
McCain has very limited ways to win, with no room for error.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) still has many routes to the White House and so can afford to campaign on a much broader playing field.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
McCain defends deregulation of Wall Street!
In last night's debate, John McCain called for more regulation and oversight of Wall Street, despite the fact that he led the effort to pass many of the deregulatory reforms that led to the current crisis.
Interviewed on CBS only a few days before the debate, however, McCain said he did not“regret” championing the deregulation of Wall Street, that it was good for the economy:
Q: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?
McCAIN: No. I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.
Watch it:
Interviewed on CBS only a few days before the debate, however, McCain said he did not“regret” championing the deregulation of Wall Street, that it was good for the economy:
Q: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?
McCAIN: No. I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.
Watch it:
Friday, September 26, 2008
McCain tries to bury campaign manager scandal
Michael Tomasky writes:
Wednesday was the worst day of the campaign for McCain. The revelations about Rick Davis' firm doing lobbying work for Freddie Mac had the potential, and still may have the potential, to cost Davis his job. Certainly the story had the potential to eat up a lot of cable television time over the next two days. Over the long term, and most importantly, the story has the power, if used properly by the Democrats, to dissolve any morsel of credibility McCain had on the subject of dealing with the current fiscal crisis.
Tomasky suggests convincingly that McCain's dramatic announcement to suspend his campaign, which by last night was revealed as more public relations than reality, was an attempt to bury the Davis story.
Tomasky's blog is worth the read.
Wednesday was the worst day of the campaign for McCain. The revelations about Rick Davis' firm doing lobbying work for Freddie Mac had the potential, and still may have the potential, to cost Davis his job. Certainly the story had the potential to eat up a lot of cable television time over the next two days. Over the long term, and most importantly, the story has the power, if used properly by the Democrats, to dissolve any morsel of credibility McCain had on the subject of dealing with the current fiscal crisis.
Tomasky suggests convincingly that McCain's dramatic announcement to suspend his campaign, which by last night was revealed as more public relations than reality, was an attempt to bury the Davis story.
Tomasky's blog is worth the read.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
McCain lobbyist was on Freddie Mac payroll. Taxpayers pay the bill.
John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis and his firm, was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage firms bailed out by the federal government. The payments didn't end until the Freddie Mac was bailed out earlier this month.
McCain who originally campaigned as the more experienced Presidential candidate, has recently reframed his campaign as a movement for change. He has attacked lobbyists and the Washington establishment. Now we learn his camapign manger was a highly compensated lobbyist!
In an interview with CNBC and The New York Times on Sunday, McCain responded to a question about Mr. Davis’s role as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac by saying that his campaign manager “has had nothing to do with it since (2005), and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”
Well, the record was examined and it reveals that Rick Davis was on the Freddie Mac payroll until last month.
Not only that. Mr Davis didn't do anything for his $180,000 a year.
Freddie Mac officials said they can''t recall Mr. Davis’s doing any work for the company. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.
So McCain lied about his campaign manager getting paid by Freddie Mac who was getting paid to provide Freddie Mac executives access to McCain. Taxpayers are now picking up the bill.
And we're suppose to believe that a McCain administration wouldn't be for sale?
Read the breaking news.
McCain who originally campaigned as the more experienced Presidential candidate, has recently reframed his campaign as a movement for change. He has attacked lobbyists and the Washington establishment. Now we learn his camapign manger was a highly compensated lobbyist!
In an interview with CNBC and The New York Times on Sunday, McCain responded to a question about Mr. Davis’s role as a lobbyist for Freddie Mac by saying that his campaign manager “has had nothing to do with it since (2005), and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”
Well, the record was examined and it reveals that Rick Davis was on the Freddie Mac payroll until last month.
Not only that. Mr Davis didn't do anything for his $180,000 a year.
Freddie Mac officials said they can''t recall Mr. Davis’s doing any work for the company. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis & Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of Mr. Davis’s close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.
So McCain lied about his campaign manager getting paid by Freddie Mac who was getting paid to provide Freddie Mac executives access to McCain. Taxpayers are now picking up the bill.
And we're suppose to believe that a McCain administration wouldn't be for sale?
Read the breaking news.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
McCain wants health care deregulated
John McCain can't help himself.
Not only did he say that the economy was fundamentally sound just as Wall Street was unraveling, But he also thinks that health care reform should be modeled after the deregulated and collapsing financial sector.
Here is exactly what he wrote in Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries magazine:
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.
McCain is a serial deregulator!
And Barack Obama's response:
Not only did he say that the economy was fundamentally sound just as Wall Street was unraveling, But he also thinks that health care reform should be modeled after the deregulated and collapsing financial sector.
Here is exactly what he wrote in Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries magazine:
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.
McCain is a serial deregulator!
And Barack Obama's response:
Friday, September 19, 2008
McCain to Green Bay-trickle down economics works
Senator John McCain claims he's an agent of change and a maverick.
But McCain hasn't changed his faith in trickle down economics.
In Green Bay on Thursday, McCain sang the same old supply side song that Republicans have always sung when he claimed Obama "...will tax the country into a recession."
Earth to John McCain!
We are already in a recession that you and advisers like former campaign chair Senator Phil Gramm created through your blind commitment to financial deregulation!
America is facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Trillions have been pledged to ensure that the system doesn't collapse entirely. We have lost 660,000 jobs since January. In the past year, Wisconsin alone has shed 23,000 private sector jobs.
The deficit, over $400 billion this year, will pass a half a trillion next! And these deficit projections don't include the money pledged by the Fed and the Treasury to bail out Wall Street!
McCain is wrong, dead wrong, about Obama's economic plan. It will provide a tax break to 95% of Americans, while increasing marginal tax rates on those making over $250,000.
McCain admits he knows little about economics. He apparently also has problems with history.
Shortly after Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, he proposed and Congress added two marginal tax rates on high income earners, 35% and 39.6%. Much like McCain's doom and gloom projections in Green Bay, Republicans screamed that this would lead to economic ruin. Instead the US economy boomed during the Clinton years, creating 22 million jobs, more than four times the Bush record. Real hourly wages rose between 1997 and 2000 for the first time since the 1970s. And rather than operating at a deficit, the federal government actually ran budget surpluses from 1997-2000.
The Clinton era surpluses were so great, a projected $5.2 trillion, that when George Bush became President he felt the country could afford a tax cut and, like McCain today, that high income tax cuts would lead to investment, growth and prosperity. So he proposed and Congress agreed to cut taxes by $1.3 trillion, a fourth of the projected surplus. Fifty-two percent of these cuts went to the richest 1%, earning over $1.5 million. The result-the most anemic growth, only 5 million total jobs and falling, of any post-World War II recovery, but growing inequality and economic hardship for working Americans.
McCain's Green Bay critique of Obama is the same old, tired trickle down economic orthodoxy that Republicans have always peddled. The message is the same-no change at all. The only thing that has changed is that McCain whom opposed the Bush tax cuts is now the messenger.
But McCain hasn't changed his faith in trickle down economics.
In Green Bay on Thursday, McCain sang the same old supply side song that Republicans have always sung when he claimed Obama "...will tax the country into a recession."
Earth to John McCain!
We are already in a recession that you and advisers like former campaign chair Senator Phil Gramm created through your blind commitment to financial deregulation!
America is facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Trillions have been pledged to ensure that the system doesn't collapse entirely. We have lost 660,000 jobs since January. In the past year, Wisconsin alone has shed 23,000 private sector jobs.
The deficit, over $400 billion this year, will pass a half a trillion next! And these deficit projections don't include the money pledged by the Fed and the Treasury to bail out Wall Street!
McCain is wrong, dead wrong, about Obama's economic plan. It will provide a tax break to 95% of Americans, while increasing marginal tax rates on those making over $250,000.
McCain admits he knows little about economics. He apparently also has problems with history.
Shortly after Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, he proposed and Congress added two marginal tax rates on high income earners, 35% and 39.6%. Much like McCain's doom and gloom projections in Green Bay, Republicans screamed that this would lead to economic ruin. Instead the US economy boomed during the Clinton years, creating 22 million jobs, more than four times the Bush record. Real hourly wages rose between 1997 and 2000 for the first time since the 1970s. And rather than operating at a deficit, the federal government actually ran budget surpluses from 1997-2000.
The Clinton era surpluses were so great, a projected $5.2 trillion, that when George Bush became President he felt the country could afford a tax cut and, like McCain today, that high income tax cuts would lead to investment, growth and prosperity. So he proposed and Congress agreed to cut taxes by $1.3 trillion, a fourth of the projected surplus. Fifty-two percent of these cuts went to the richest 1%, earning over $1.5 million. The result-the most anemic growth, only 5 million total jobs and falling, of any post-World War II recovery, but growing inequality and economic hardship for working Americans.
McCain's Green Bay critique of Obama is the same old, tired trickle down economic orthodoxy that Republicans have always peddled. The message is the same-no change at all. The only thing that has changed is that McCain whom opposed the Bush tax cuts is now the messenger.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
McCain attacks economic critics
In response to Republican nominee John McCain's assertion that the economies fundamentals are sound the New York Times editors wrote:
John McCain spent Monday claiming as he had countless times before — that the economy was fundamentally sound. Had he missed the collapse of Lehman Brothers or the sale of Merrill Lynch, which were announced the day before? Did he not notice the agonies of the American Insurance Group? Was he unaware of the impending layoffs of tens of thousands of Wall Street employees on top of the growing numbers of unemployed workers throughout the United States?
On Tuesday, he clarified his remarks. The clarification was far more worrisome than his initial comments.
He said that by calling the economy fundamentally sound, what he really meant was that American workers are the best in the world. In the best Karl Rovian fashion, he implied that if you dispute his statement about the economy’s firm foundation, you are, in effect, insulting American workers. “I believe in American workers, and someone who disagrees with that — it’s fine,” he told NBC’s Matt Lauer.
Let’s get a few things straight. First, no one who is currently running for president does not “believe in American workers.”
More to the point, the economy is stressed to the breaking point by fundamental problems — in housing, finance, credit, employment, health care and the federal budget — that have been at best neglected, at worst exacerbated during the Bush years. And as a result, American workers have taken a beating.
In clarifying his comments, Mr. McCain lavished praise on workers, but ignored their problems.
That is the real insult.
Read the rest.
John McCain spent Monday claiming as he had countless times before — that the economy was fundamentally sound. Had he missed the collapse of Lehman Brothers or the sale of Merrill Lynch, which were announced the day before? Did he not notice the agonies of the American Insurance Group? Was he unaware of the impending layoffs of tens of thousands of Wall Street employees on top of the growing numbers of unemployed workers throughout the United States?
On Tuesday, he clarified his remarks. The clarification was far more worrisome than his initial comments.
He said that by calling the economy fundamentally sound, what he really meant was that American workers are the best in the world. In the best Karl Rovian fashion, he implied that if you dispute his statement about the economy’s firm foundation, you are, in effect, insulting American workers. “I believe in American workers, and someone who disagrees with that — it’s fine,” he told NBC’s Matt Lauer.
Let’s get a few things straight. First, no one who is currently running for president does not “believe in American workers.”
More to the point, the economy is stressed to the breaking point by fundamental problems — in housing, finance, credit, employment, health care and the federal budget — that have been at best neglected, at worst exacerbated during the Bush years. And as a result, American workers have taken a beating.
In clarifying his comments, Mr. McCain lavished praise on workers, but ignored their problems.
That is the real insult.
Read the rest.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
As financial crisis deepens McCain declares the economy strong
Fearing a worldwide financial crisis, the Federal Reserve reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control of the troubled insurance giant American International Group.
The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history.
Despite these developments, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain declared the "fundamentals of the economy are strong."
In response, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama asked:"How can you (McCain) fix the economy, when you don't think there is anything wrong?"
The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history.
Despite these developments, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain declared the "fundamentals of the economy are strong."
In response, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama asked:"How can you (McCain) fix the economy, when you don't think there is anything wrong?"
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Greenspan opposes McCain tax cut proposal as budget buster
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has questioned the affordability of Republican nominee John McCain's tax cut proposals which, like the Bush tax cuts, are based on cutting the taxes of the very wealthiest Americans. (see chart comparing Obama and McCain cuts)
Greenspan told Bloomberg News he was "not in favor of financing tax cuts with borrowed money" when asked if the United States could afford big tax cuts such as those proposed by John McCain. The non partisan Tax Policy Institute projects that McCains's tax cuts will add $5 trillion to the national debt or require major cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Noting that McCain has in the past expressed strong admiration for Greenspan, a fellow Republican whose support helped convince Congress to pass the high income Bush tax cuts, the Obama campaign said the former Fed chief's comments were evidence that McCain's economic plan was fiscally reckless.
Noting that McCain has in the past expressed strong admiration for Greenspan, a fellow Republican whose support helped convince Congress to pass the high income Bush tax cuts, the Obama campaign said the former Fed chief's comments were evidence that McCain's economic plan was fiscally reckless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)