DemocracyUpsideDown

Political Cartoon for the Day

2011-10-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

From The Christian Left (hat-tip to lowkell at Blue Virginia).

2011-10-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Watch the Take Back the American Dream Conference

freespeechtv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

2010-07-22T17:08:00.001-07:00

Rachel Maddow's Segment on How Wrong-Wing Bigots Try to Stir Up Majority Voters

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

2010-06-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

President Obama's First 1.5 Years: He's Accomplished More than You Think

2010-06-26T05:09:00.000-07:00

The Dems New Ad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcyxAzdMAn8&feature=player_embedded

2009-11-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

Whistleblower Rats Out Health Insurance Company

2009-09-23T07:54:00.000-07:00

Finally, Some Fun! Jody Wagner's Excellent New Ad

2009-09-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

The GOP's Insult-Everyone Path to Marginalization: Why Rural Voters Should Bail on the GOP

Cross Posted at Blue Commonwealth and Daily Kos

(I am (finally) fired up and ready to go. Consider this the first installment on this subject of how out of touch today’s GOP is, especially in Virginia. It will take four posts to address the various issues in the references I will cite. My next installment will address the assertions about the business community and their reactions to Creigh’s message. The third article will address Dems and the rural vote. The fourth will show why Bob McDonnell is not qualified and does not deserve the support of even the GOP base. Here goes the first. Fired up. Ready to go.)

If you want to understand how out of touch today’s Republican Party is, how chauvinistically it holds its rural vote, and how undeserving of it the GOP really is, you have only to look at some recent incidents. First, a major Republican, Tom Davis, suggested that a rural Virginian, with a stellar record, a law degree from a much more respected university than his opponent (Wake Forest v. Regent, come on!), and a much stronger legislative record of accomplishment isn't qualified to be governor.

Let this clip from WAPO here set the stage for a the Davis Politico interview.

“At a recent candidates forum with business leaders in Northern Virginia, Deeds talked about living upstream from the home his ancestors built in 1740. He mentioned the struggles of Virginia families in South Hill and Martinsville. He told the defense contractors, lawyers and investors in the room how much worse off rural Virginia is than the suburbs of Washington. He was halfway through his 20-minute speech before he talked about a centerpiece of his economic plan: to provide tax breaks for businesses that create jobs.

And this was Tom Davis’s reaction:

"He doesn't speak the language," said former Republican congressman Tom Davis, who works at Deloitte Consulting. "He doesn't understand it. That's just not the mold he comes from. He comes from a different world. It's okay. But it doesn't qualify him."

Davis does not react to the need for jobs in rural Virginia, to the plight of real Virginians. Rather, he disses them as being from a different world? This is the “he’s not one of us” turned on its head. Allow me a translation: He’s saying that rural Virginians are “unqualified.” To Creigh's plea for the plight of deserving fellow citizens, Tom Davis gives that? This is a metaphor for the Republican Party. It pours root killer down into its withering tree-stump, deep into its own roots. And it is too ignorant to realize it has killed itself off.

Folks like Davis probably thought Madison Marye (one of the smartest men I have ever known) was “unqualified.” A Democrat, he was so good at his job and so beloved in an otherwise Republican learning district that the Republicans, led by Morgan Griffith, had to gerrymander him out of a district to get rid of him. The voters never would. Madison has a heart of gold and a mind just as worthy. He was as intelligent, effective and savvy as any NOVA Dem. So too is Creigh Deeds.

In the Politico interview, Davis said:

Politics has been defined by culture over the last few cycles, and we've become a rural party and a Southern party. We've been losing inner suburbs and the like. A lot of this was the policies of the Bush administration." Furthermore, as the GOP increased its focus on cultural issues, it also caused a widening education gap:

Davis added: "The high education areas Obama carried -- 78 of the 100 counties with the highest education. McCain carried 88 of the 100 counties with the lowest education. As we move to cultural politics, that's been the shift."

{Kathy’s aside: Is it any wonder Republicans want to defund education?} Davis is right about one thing. Many recent elections have been largely about “culture.” They shouldn’t have been, but that’s the reality. And the GOP knows how to make it about “culture.” Concoct a brew of “culture,” disinformation, hot-button issues, and complete ongoing deprivation and you can get some of the people some of the time. But the depravity of the message and tactics have their limits, and we have approached the bounds of them. The GOP seems hell-bent on riding that wave into oblivion.

You no doubt remember the recent outrage caused by State Republican Chair, Pat "[Mullins], who

“ ended his talk with a story about a Wise County insurance office that had to close two offices, not due to lack of work or the economy, but because it couldn't find employees. He said the employer tried to recruit employees at a nearby college campus. 'They preferred to be on welfare,' Mullins said." (The Record, 7/30/09, here.

I have heard this kind of prejudice before. The supposition is that someone who is “plain spoken,’ who speaks with a twang, or who just doesn’t’ sound as slick or as deceptive as as (say) the current Republican candidate for governor, should be rejected. So, someone who better reflects both the values and the agenda most Virginians want is dissed because, despite the fact that he earned his law degree at the best law school in the state, he uses straightforward language, unspun, unslickified, unlike the FAUX moderate from real other world of FAUX newsland extremists. The thing is, when Creigh is Creigh he does very well. A single clip following the recent debate notwithstanding, Davis and the GOP seriously underestimate both Creigh and the electorate.

I am the daughter of a farm boy, who happened one day, as life would have it, to become a mostly self-taught “master designer” (as the president of a major corporation once said of him). He went on to found its first patent office, and become a corporate vice-president. All his life he spoke humbly and considered himself a farm boy. When he retired he moved away from the hubbub of Southern California to the then mostly rural central Coast. To his last days, he treasured riding past cattle farms, orchards, strawberry fields and vineyards. For him it was like going home, which increasingly this quiet man spoke of in his later years. To understand the GOP’s peril you have to know a bit about my Dad. He was a registered Republican who dined one table away from Ronald Reagan at a presidential fundraiser in 1980. He broke ranks to vote for Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry. Had he lived to 2008, I believe he would have voted for Barack Obama because he had little patience for John McCain. Besides, he told me more than once he’d never vote for Republicans again. (Did I mention he also voted for Senators Feinstein and Boxer! Now there’s a story--and many a voter to be tapped.)

I did not grow up on a farm, far from it. But I have lived not just in a large suburb of Los Angeles; but also in medium-sized city in the northwest, surrounded by wheat fields; and in the rural north, hours from a major city. Farms were just down the road in both directions. Amish buggies rolled down my road too. And today in my planned development, with its walking trails, basketball courts, clubhouses, and 2 swimming pools, I have farmland on three of five sides of me. From one side, the Obenshain farm (now farmland in perpetuity via the New River Land Trust), I hear cows through my open window. I see them as I get my mail outside. Over the years I’ve noted the cows' group behavior and come to watch for them each time I head out of my neighborhood. They silhouette our sunset from finger-like western rays sweeping over Brush Mountain from the northwest. I walk past the Virginia Tech sheep farm and the Heth cattle farm too. Every time I leave the surrounds of my town I am surrounded by farmland, hours of it as I pass mostly rural landscapes on my trips to visit far-flung family. Though I am not a farmer, I know enough to respect what farmers and other rural workers do. They defy stereotype. They are our neighbors, our fellow citizens. They are us... We are of many one, not just here in my my town, or in my family, but across this nation. Jim Webb knew as much. And he showed the way. Mark Warner too. I disagree with Mark Warner about many things, but not about this.

Today's Virginia Republicans show abject disrespect for their base, confound us with their over-the-top bigotry and stereotyping, and (well) appall us with their ignorance. They think they have something up on rural folks, the people all around us, who grow our grain, vegetables and fruit, who raise our cattle and poultry. There's no respect for the teachers, nurses, shopkeepers, construction workers, miners, plumbers, doctors, and mechanics. The GOP does not not have a clue, except how to stoke emotional, rote calls to arms over “values” these Republicans don’t actually practice in real life. Half of the state lies beyond the suburbs of NOVA and Hampton Roads. And the GOP disses all of it.

That pretty much would have eliminated Abe Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and most other early US patriots as well. Regarding buttons, Tom has succeeded in pushing mine. And if I have anything to say about it, we won’t stop giving him and the GOP grief over such bigotry for the rest of this race and on into the future. The GOP has marginalized itself from minorities, women, and now rural voters? Who’s left?

The GOP is, finally, the Party of No and of No one. On the other hand the Democratic Party of Virginia, including and especially, the the Webb wing of the Virginia Democratic Party has some instructing to do. So, let's get the word out about how today's Republicans disrespect rural voters and see how long rural voters continue to support FAUX candidates like Bob McDonnell. Fired up. Ready to go.

2009-07-11T05:15:00.000-07:00

Making Negatives Out of Positives in Sotomayor's Rulings

By most accounts Judge Sonia Sotomayor has a well-qualified resume. Except from conservative ideologues, she brings broad support to her confirmation hearings. Nevertheless, as the hearings approach, the Washington Post's Jerry Markon weighs in. And it appears he's trying hard to turn positives into negatives.

I’d like to ask: Since when is thoroughness a liability? If you're the Democratic nominee for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. In a recent Washington Post article, Jerry Markon purports to analyze Sotomayor’s rulings. Said, Markon, she “delivered those rulings with a level of detail considered unusual for an appellate judge.” She has made herself an expert on a number of issues. However, we are told she does a “granular” analysis of every piece of evidence. How very wrong of her (snark)!

When it comes to analysis, I might question that done by the author—and his main source, So. Carolina political scientist, Donald Songer. First, he used a database of 5400 cases with labels of “liberal” or conservative,” depending on whether one ruled for the defendant (“liberal”) or the prosecutor “conservative”). Think about this: The operational definition here is strikingly stereotypical, and ideological itself. If one's operational definition is flawed, the research cannot show what the researcher claims it does.

Whether one rules for or against a defendant should have nothing to do with whether one is a liberal or conservative judge. And labeling a judge so means nothing, except politics. And what this prejudice (and is a prejudice) suggests is that those who believe such a thing cannot afford a defendant a fair trial. But from this operational definition and "analysis," Songer says “I don’t think it’s possible to classify her as tough on crime.” But being tough on crime does not mean that every prosecutor is right. It has nothing whatever to do with which side one finds for. But that is one way “tough on crime” politicians have tried to hijack our legal system. We want our prosecutors to enforce the law by bringing criminals to trial. But don’t’ we expect them to play by the rules? And if they do not, don’t we expect the courts to deal appropriately with prosecutors who don’t follow the law, or who violate due process? Don't we expect the process of the trial to be examined on appeal? Not everyone expects that, of course. For some are concerned, you can hear almost hear the derision of “technicalities” as justification for retrial. But there's more...

In one paragraph, the author makes sure to mention she supported the First Amendment. Isn’t that what all justices must do?

When she threw out one case to set free a convicted murderer, she is dissed by the WAPO writer because she didn’t base her ruling on his guilt but on the appropriateness of the charge he was brought up on. I am not a lawyer, but isn’t serving as arbiter of the process a primary task of the appellate level?

Of particular note, Republicans were furious when Sotomayor handed out a federally mandated minimum sentence, but simultaneously railed that the guidelines are an abomination. She explained later that her ire came from an aspect of the guidelines that Congress has now changed. But that's no excuse (snark!).

In another study reported on NPR this morning (story not available online till later today), she actually convicted more often than her peers, AND she gave longer sentences for both white collar and other criminal violations. But our intrepid WAPO reporter doesn’t see fit to use such considerations. There’s a frame to be made.

Despite the fact that the writer acknowledges that “Her decisions are filled with citations of law and precedent,” he hangs around her neck the infamous “court sets policy" bruh-ha-ha), which she has clarified. But it is a fact that the appellate court does address how court cases should be tried (policy for that). The author also rips Sotomayor for obsessively immersing herself in facts, and then cites a fellow Democratic appointee who criticizes Sotomayor for "disregarding the judges "role as finder-of-facts."

Then the author says her style is "consistent" even when she finds against defendants. With bias and a negative frame such as Markon's, she cannot win. Honestly, this is how to smear and take apart a candidate, inch-by-inch. There’s more at the above link (ad nauseum). Suffice it to say, Mr. Markon was out to find in the negative for Sotomayor. And that’s mostly what he did. No lemonade from lemons here, only rotten lemons, faulty assumptions, and a biased case.

2009-07-07T06:43:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin Was Allegedly AWOL from her Governorship, But Claims Higher Calling

Sarah Palin was allegedly AWOL from her governorship, but claims a "higher calling ." Thus begins the newest excuse for playing hooky and then resigning her job as governor of Alaska. She's only nominally served two of the 2.5 years because much of 2008 was focused on national ambitions. She was laying the groundwork before August 2008. Indeed all of that seemed more important than staying home to safely deliver the her latest child.

Among all the other curiosities concerning the bizarre departure announcement by Sarah Palin is this: She’s not been all that engaged in her job anyway. According to MSNBC, Sarah Palin had “gone fishing.”

So, what of this "higher calling”? Is she trying to tell us (ala GWB) that "God" whispered in her ear? God also ate her homework, apparently. Palin claims this "higher calling" to unite the country along conservative lines. So now God wants the country to be run according to conservative lines. Evidently, Palin doesn’t know what the Bible really says about humility, much less the poor, the meek, the hungry. And, btw, perhaps God takes a dim view of loading your selves up with designer clothing from a shopping spree on someone else's dime (or rather $150,000).

In the last few months, Palin had laid the groundwork for a possible presidential run, establishing a political action committee, SarahPAC. She has a very lucrative (especially for someone who is not all that literate) book deal. Of course, she has a co-writer. And she is moving forward to whatever she is up to.

The recent Vanity Fair piece here shows the extent of her unpredictable, even erratic, behavior. It’s a sobering look at one who could have sat in the second highest office in this country. Our nation's near-peril was trifled with by a GOP which ironically only wanted to win and reflexively dismissed the larger issue of fitness to serve.

What is once again evident is that far too many people fail to vote with a grasp of the facts, knowledge of candidate inconsistencies and fabrications, and fitness for office. Too many were and are willing to fall into line if their buttons are pushed and the right ideological buzzwords uttered. It’s a frightening thought and not at all comforting as we await the Barracuda's next move.

The responsibility for the crisis belongs with candidates such as John McCain, who don’t thoroughly vet their choices; with candidates such as Sarah Palin, who care more about power and little about serving the public; and with the voters who vote for senseless candidates because they think she is “Godly” or “pro-life” or a “values” candidate, when she really none of these. Her notion of valuing "life" is so one-dimensional it would be laughable if it weren't so appalling.

When citizens fail their precious duty, to vote with knowledge and thoughtfulness, we become our nation's gravest hazard. The sad thing --and the outrageous thing--is we had just been there, with a know nothing and no-nothing George W. Bush. Along with his VP he formed a two-person wrecking crew. How soon we forget?

In her repeated tantrums, her anger, her fulminating at the media, she saw everyone else as to blame. And it becomes clear that, sadly, Sarah Palin cares only about herself. That is her legacy (to herself). America will have to, must, look elsewhere. But in Evansville, IN, this spring, Sarah Palin brought out thousands to the local civic center. We write off this dangerous political figure at our--and our nation's-- peril.

2009-06-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Howard Dean on Bipartisanship Lost on Obstructionists

2009-06-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Real Health Care Reform (With a Government Option) NOW!

2009-06-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dick Cheney's Ongoing Revisionism Tour

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-05-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here We Go (Again)

Divisiveness is endemic to the new GOP ticket for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. With the Republican state caucus behind them, candidates for governor (Bob McDonnell), LG (Bill Boling) and AG (Ken Cuccinelli)bring to Virginia what Lavar Stoney (Executive Director of the Virginia Democratic Party) called "the most divisive ticket in modern Virginia history." Indeed. The state Republican Party seems to dig a deeper hole for itself every time.

Here's more of what Stoney said:

The Republican Party of Virginia held their State Convention today in Richmond and as expected they have nominated the most divisive ticket Virginia has seen in the modern era.

If elected, we can expect Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli to put their far-right-wing agenda ahead of the needs of Virginia's families. They will do everything they can to turn back the clock on the progress we've made under Governors Warner and Kaine.

The Republicans' choices just give us another reason to go out and work hard again this year to elect sensible, pragmatic leaders that will continue moving Virginia forward.

It's laughable that Bob McDonnell says he'll be a "jobs" governor. Not only is he the antithesis of a jobs candidate, with no plan to do that, but he flunked the first real test--by urging Virginia's legislative body to reject the stimulus for extended unemployment benefits. This ticket cares nothing about real men and women who are without work. Instead, they rely on ideological utterances and empty slogans. It seems the Virginia GOP, like it's national org just doesn't listen (or care) what America needs. More on what's wrong with the Bob McDonnell ticket as we move toward November. Suffice it to say that anyone but Bob will be our mantra. Any of the Democratic alternatives would do a better job of bringing Virginia's economy back from the brink that the party of Bush-Cheney-and Bob McDonnell brought us.

2009-05-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

Using case of Dan Choi, Jon Stewart and John Oliver Satirize and Show the Idiocy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT)

In this video Jon Stewart and John Oliver rip into DADT and show it for the absurd policy it is.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

M - Th 11p / 10c

Dan Choi Is Gay

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
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Economic Crisis

Political Humor

2009-05-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Deeds Campaign Gets Defensive/Aggressive: And Reveals Something About Itself

Analysis

The overall capable and energetic Deeds campaign staffers have done a very good job in the campaign so far. However, the campaign’s apparently creating controversy where there is none. In so doing, it has created a problem of its own. And you have to wonder whether they shouldn’t have just staked out the record and let that be that. Instead, in its railing against McAuliffe about payday lending and falsely claiming that
McAuliffe “attacked” Democrats Warner and Kaine, the Deeds campaign revealed its own shortcomings. First, a little history...

This appeared in the Virginia Pilot in the fall of 1999 (11/17/1999).

The battle over whether triple-digit ``payday'' loans should be more available in Virginia will resurface in the General Assembly next January, the state's banking commissioner and consumer advocates predicted Tuesday.

But the influence of federal banking regulations have made it more difficult for Virginia and other states to curb questionable lending practices, including these high-interest loans to cash-strapped consumers, said Joe Face...

Payday lending, which resulted in usurious rates to borrowers and exploited them into graver financial peril, has been a runaway train since the bill allowing it was passed in Virginia in 2002. Indeed the claims by Deeds of “regulating” in the 2002 bill involved some word-smithing.

Whether or not the bill was marginally better than nothing was debatable. However, it was in its aftermath that the real flood of storefronts began saturating Virginia. While, in the effort to repair the damage, incrementalists, such as Deeds, all well-meaning (they even include the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, the NAACP and the Virginia Poverty Law Center, all stellar non-partisan organizations), ultimately (in 2002) opened the floodgates to extremely usurious rates—which would have been criminal only a decade ago. Calculated at an annual rate, interest rates of 391% were average. So, efforts in 2002 were both reactive to anticipated problems in Virginia following national bank deregulation, but also permissive.

Unless they voted against the original bill, though, Democrats don’t have much high ground on this particular issue. Again, saying so is not attacking them. Some of them wised up. Some of them, such as the well-intentioned Creigh Deeds, have sought to first improve and, finally, to reverse course.

The fact is, though, they didn’t do it soon enough. And so it’s pretty extraordinary that when Terry McAuliffe became the first to call for the end to payday lending (all other candidates followed in quick pursuit), the Deeds campaign tries to portray this as a liability for McAuliffe. The fact is Terry led on the issue.

In as much as Democrats were involved in the whole nuanced mess, I say, own up to it and fix it. A simple idea. Instead, on May 5th, the Deeds campaign issued a press release blasting Terry McAuliffe with a headline as follows:

TERRY MCAULIFFE ATTACKS MARK WARNER, TIM KAINE, AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS IN NEW RADIO AD
McAuliffe ad hurts Democrats' efforts to win back the House of Delegates, breaks positive campaign pledge, and gives false information

The campaign continues:

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Yesterday, Terry McAuliffe released a new radio ad that criticizes Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly on payday lending reform, which is the same negative attack that Jim Gilmore used against Mark Warner in the 2008 U.S. Senate race. Instead of targeting Republicans who have stood in the way of payday lending reform, Terry's ad actually attacks the entire General Assembly, including the Democratic-controlled Senate and Democratic members of the House of Delegates.

You can listen to the audio of the McAuliffe ad here. Then, using the the text below, Joe Abbey purports that Terry McAuliffe has “attacked” Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (when he did not).

In Terry's ad, the announcer says: “But some loans come at too high [of] a price because legislation that was passed in Richmond in 2002 allowed predatory payday lenders to do business in Virginia. The legislation even allowed lenders to make loans with annual percentage rates as high as 391 percent. In these tough economic times, the legislature is finally working towards fixing this problem, but why has it taken so long to stop these lenders from preying on Virginia’s most vulnerable families? ”

And then this:

"The McAuliffe campaign's claim that Terry is the only candidate who supports a ban on payday lending is an outright lie. Every Democrat in this race has pledged to end payday lending in Virginia, but Creigh Deeds is the only one who stood with Tim Kaine earlier this year to pass meaningful payday lending reform to protect our families."

Not exactly. The McAuliffe ad did err that, in the time since McAuliffe first announced support for an abolition of payday lending, the other two candidates followed suit. But they only did so when one-upped by the McAuliffe campaign. In fact, had McAuliffe not staked out this position, it is doubtful the other two would have. We'll never know.

Then this week (May 14) the Deeds campaign released a radio ad which protracted this argument and further strained credibility. Here’s the text:

RADIO AD - "Disappointed"
Female: Disappointed.
Male announcer: Yep, disappointed that McAuliffe is attacking his opponents.
Female announcer: Even after he promised not to say anything negative?
Male announcer: And he's even attacking Mark Warner and Tim Kaine record’s in a new radio ad.
Female announcer: Really?
Male announcer: Yep, McAuliffe wants you to believe Warner, Kaine and Democrats in the legislature went easy on those payday lending companies.
Female announcer: That’s the same attack Jim Gilmore tried against Mark Warner.
Male announcer: It didn’t work then and won’t work now.
Female announcer: Kinda strange for someone like Terry McAuliffe who made millions in the high interest credit card business himself to use this deceptive Republican attack.
Male announcer: Well, it's a good thing we have a friend like Creigh Deeds fighting for us.
Female announcer: I know, it was State Senator Deeds who stood With Gov. Kaine to pass new laws that crackdown on payday lenders.
Male announcer: And Deeds is the most qualified Democrat to carry on the Warner-Kaine agenda.
Female announcer: That's why leaders like Senators Yvonne Miller, Louise Lucas and Henry Marsh are supporting Creigh Deeds for Governor.

Here the campaign goes negative while claiming the other guy is. The ad is also extremely misleading. The history of Deeds on payday lending is a lot more nuanced. The Deeds campaign claims “2002: In the initial legislation, Creigh voted for the original language to regulate payday lending in 2002 (HB940).” Previously, the loans would have been considered usurious. But, as I said earlier, the 2002 bill not only “regulated” the loans, it permitted them in the first place. In 2002 the legislature performed either the unthinkable or the good, depending upon whom you believe. Here’s the bill. The wording amended the state’s previous anti-usury laws. And here’s a summary of the law (along with other laws passed that year) From the Virginia Legislative Service back then here.

The payday lending bill was an exploitative mess. Yet since then incrementalists have taken baby steps to fix it. Rather than 1) never voted it into law in the first place, or 2) repealing it altogether, our General Assembly took the easy path, Dems and Republicans. They were so loathe to cut short a fledgling “industry” they would not do what was necessary. On April 3rd Terry McAuliffe called for an end to payday loans. Said the Richmond Times Dispatch at on April 3rd:

McAuliffe's two foes in the June 9 primary echoed his proposal, though both Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County and former Del. Brian J. Moran of Alexandria voted in 2002 to open Virginia to payday lenders.

So Deeds got “religion” on the subject echoing McAuliffe. Bandwagons are nice, but they don’t count for being the courageous first one to openly take on the wrath of the payday lending “industry.” Then on May 8th, the Deeds campaign included the the chronology in a press release:

2002: In the initial legislation, Creigh voted for the original language to regulate payday lending in 2002. [HB940]
2003: Creigh voted to support “truth in advertising” legislation for the payday lending industry in 2003. [HB1769]
2004: Creigh voted for stricter regulations on payday loan paperwork. [HB688]
2005: Creigh voted to prohibit payday lenders from lending to military personnel or their spouses if a base commander has declared a location restricted. [HB1156]
2007: Creigh voted to create an internet database of loan holders to ensure that a payday lender could not hand out anymore loans to individuals with multiple outstanding loans. [SB1014]
2008: Creigh supported legislation to cap interest loans for payday loans at 36% and to put strict regulations on the payday lending industry. [SB588, HB12]
2009: Earlier this year, Creigh co-patroned legislation to crackdown on payday lenders, which was signed into law by Governor Kaine. [SB1470]
CREIGH DEEDS ON APRIL 8, 2009: Creigh Deeds joined Governor Kaine in supporting a major crackdown on payday lenders in Virginia. [SB 1470, 4/8/09]

The upshot is that Deeds was right about one thing: There was a factual error in McAuliffe’s ad. Terry’s ad should have stated that he (McAuliffe) was the first to call for an end to payday lending. He wasn’t the only one opposing it. Yet the error hardly justified what has come next. Then, instead of just requesting a correction, the Deeds campaign tried to contrast Deeds new complete opposition to payday lending with McAuliffe's raising money (while Deeds was taking on payday lenders McAuliffe was raising money). This erroneously implied that McAuliffe supports payday lending and that Deeds was “to the rescue,” while McAuliffe was not. Then, Deeds campaign upped the ante even more, falsely claiming in both a press release and an ad that McAuliffe attacked Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. It’s possibly an act of desperation. And the Deeds campaign doesn’t need to stoop to this stuff.

This blog has been cross-posted from BlueCommonwealth.com

2009-05-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Are 51% of Texas Republicans are Traitors?

2009-05-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

George Allen Can't Help Himself: Starts Anti-New Energy Org to Mislead and Obstruct Real Energy Change

George Allen wouldn't know sound energy policy if it bit him in the butt. But that hasn't' stopped him from starting a company to (mis) educate folks about energy. Here's the video with the Virginia Gubernator's smirking announcement.

2009-05-07T16:02:00.000-07:00

McDonnell's Campaign Director (Bushie Gillespie) Shoots Himself in the Foot (But Doesn't Even Know It).

2009-05-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

Sad Spectacle of Republican "Leadership"

Video from NLS blog.

2009-04-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Short Takes
I'm still blogging. But many days, it's over at Blue Commonwealth. In addition to BC, soon I'll also continue to writing here. Meanwhile, here are some articles:

Peggy Frank to Challenge Dave Nutter
Peggy Frank announced her candidacy for Delegate (7th House District). Read more here.

More About the Frank race here.

Democrats Gained a Senator Today
Arlen Specter joined forces with the Dems today.

Also from KathyinBlacksburg
--Here's an article here.

--And another.

--And another.

2009-04-21T17:26:00.001-07:00

This Week in Health: Health Care Hypocrisy (Time to Call Your Favorite Blue Dogs)

(Cross-posted at Blue Commonwealth).

Congress is at “work” on the budget for FY beginning in October. At least some members in Congress are at work trying to bring Americans the health care insurance they want and deserve. Some have dug their ideological heels in. Meanwhile, as do many economists, President Barack Obama sees health care reform as critical to our economy, and as essential to the budget this year. With health care costs skyrocketing along with the ranks of the uninsured, we have no choice.

Yet, on cue, the whiners and obstructionists are out in force, trying to prevent anything from being done. Ourfuture.org today presented a number of quotes from Whiners, Inc. You know the guys who have health insurance but don’t want you to. You’ll want to take a look at the absurdity of many of them.

You’ll want to take a look at the absurdity of many of them. As OurFuture.org notes:

Whiner-in-chief Sen. Judd Gregg R-NH copmplained “that would be the Chicago approach to governing: Strong-arm it through….You’re talking about the exact opposite of bipartisan. You’re talking about running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them into the Chicago River.”

[ROTFL]

But, really. it’s not a laughing matter. I think we should ask the Repubs --and the Blue Dogs too--what’s wrong with Americans having the a choice of selecting the same plan Congress has? We pay for theirs, but they wont return the favor. If they won’t get off their duffs and give Americans universal health care insurance (including a public option), I think we should try to figure out how to take their insurance away (and maybe their pensions too--since they don’t care if we have those either). I’ll write more on pension reform tomorrow. The votes are there in the House. But in the Senate, as we all know, obstructionists have made new meaning of the 60 votes to end cloture. That leaves the reconciliation process as perhaps the only avenue. And as I have written before, any protest by Republicans about using reconciliation never includes an honest reflection on the times they used it themselves.

The Republicans (and some Dems) are the folks who want to hand you a small check and send you out on your own to buy health insurance in the “marketplace,” where many a family pays between $1600 and 2,000 or more a month. They voucher program they propose won't come close to doing what it needs to. But if everyone were in the system and risk was spread out among the entire population, premiums could be a lot less. But a voucher system is unsustainable because:

• Currently, the uninsured can cost the system more than the insured, especially when they use the ER for routine health issues.
• The already sick won’t be able to buy insurance at an affordable price.
• Those with pre-existing conditions would still have problems getting coverage.
• Over-zealous insurance claim denial (which sometimes amounts to fraud against those who have paid for coverage (would continue). This guarantees that the sick, and even the dying, must spend their time fighting with insurance to get the coverage they paid for.
• The GOP proposals offer no group-negotiated price.
• Negotiating for group pricing for either services or medication in Republican plan.
• The GOP and Blue Dog versions strip away a nationalized option.
• The Republicans don’t want to stop over-subsidizing Medicare “Advantage” plans; and neither the Blue Dogs nor the Republicans want there to be a public option (such as buying into the plan Congress has, or into Medicare.
• Worse, for those under 55, Republicans want to end admittance to Medicare (when they are 65) and put everyone into on-your-ownership

When you hear Republicans using mythic talking points, such as, “We can’t afford Cadillac coverage,” you know you are being snowed. Only the elite and execs have “Cadillac or concierge medical care. And they don’t want us to intrude into their hospital luxury suites. Yes, there is such a thing. We just don’t get to use them. It’s not that I am asking that we can, mind you. But the availability of such a two-tiered system renders the suite-sters unfit to lecture us about health care costs. No worry, their employers pick up the tab, but these same coddled elites don't want our employers to supply coverage.

Meanwhile Blue Dogs still threaten to undo everything. I’m too miffed with Evan Bayh to even get started on “that one.” The Nay-saying Republicans won’t ante up and give the American people what they want. And the whole thing threatens to make this an ugly week. That's where you come in. You can keep things from going south on health care. It’s really time to head to Washington. But until you do, please:

• Call Sen. Mark Warner: (202) 224-2023

• Or write: http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

I am not sure we should label Jim Webb a “Blue Dog.” Surely, he’s more of a populist than most in Congress. But for good measure, please call or write him too.

• Call Sen. Jim Webb: (202) 224-4024

• Or write: http://webb.senate.gov/contact/

2009-04-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

GOP Gasbags Run Out of Gas

Listen to the foolishness of the usual suspects when they condemn the Obama administration's dealing with the hostage crisis (kidnapping by pirates). PST, guys, he was successful!!!!! And I love the send-in-the-marines alternative measure. The marines do a great job, but, seriously, was this a job for a massive invasion? Talk about overkill! One would think that these talking heads only have one way of reacting --going to war when it isn't necessary. Why do I think they'll be calling for Blackwater (oops, I mean Xe) to set up an even bigger presence there than they already have?

>

2009-04-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

A Spring Regenerative Gift for Us All: Their Time, and Even a Slice of Their Lives

[Cross-posted at BlueCommonwealth.com]

Shades of gray pencil window-shade upon ceiling, lines almost beckoning us out into the afternoon's light. This beautiful spring week, some among us celebrate rebirth and others gather in traditional Seder. In churches, synagogues, meeting halls, and homes we gather. In faith, renewal and forgiveness, we bring various faith-gifts to each other, and to our communities. And then we reflect the newness of the earth, red bud brand new, billowy decorative pear, and the slightly arching daffodils.

In this most earnest opening of spiritual spring, it is not sacrilegious, I think, to write of the challenge of transforming our yearning for renewal into a living testament, the stuff of more, or mere, mortal concern. How best do we of so many faiths transform a state and national agenda into something meaningful for all? How do we go about honoring the many, but not losing the few? Life and death issues surround us, seeming surreal some times, real-life dilemmas, such as unemployment, bridging health insurance, feeding more of our hungry-even saving lives. In many ways, it is spiritual work. But it is done in the secular world. And questions arise. Is it the spiritual thing, the stuff that religious mores are built upon, for example, to decline Virginia's share of the "stimulus bill" just to make a statement (or at least mostly to). Is that justifiable in any faith? Surely in the out years, after all, solutions could be found to cover the need when federal funding stops, or, hopefully, the recession's need does at the same time.

We are lucky here in Virginia to have three men (no women this time) who, in their run for governor, think Virginia can do much better than that --that being the way the House of Delegates, or rather its partisan leaders, managed to put the needs of the poor and unemployed squarely last. No hint of rebirth or renewal there. More than one faith celebrates this week the importance of forgiveness. How to forgive such willful neglect?

Can we build it by seeing misguided people for the humans that they are? We can do this while not excusing such neglect. Is that enough? Or is more, much more demanded of us? Those who spend time in political action see it as the most earnest translation of their ideals. And in such action, we have a way. Again, I mean no sacrilege to say that government sunlight, open votes, transparency (instead of no roll call when it's convenient) would bring renewal to our Capitol. It would be a perfect gift for such a season.

As I said, on our side of the aisle, there are three very different men with their earnest and passionate supporters. I've been thinking about the fact that each of them brings to the public arena such a profound gift. And so I have to ask: Is it fitting that we quibble with or challenge their earnestness? Would we wish ourselves to be so challenged? Most of us probably know whom we will vote for. And yet I think we'll all be well served if we focus on all the candidates' collective gifts to each of us. In addition to the obvious (time, money, sacrifice), they also have their unique voices, experiences, and even positions (some of those may not always seem like gifts :-). But they are usually formed by a lot of individual wrestling with pros and cons, and with the views of constituents not far behind. We may become unhappy with one or the other of them in coming weeks or months. I hope we can forgive their differences of opinion or even their human failings. There are people to be served, helped, and restored, after all. Our mission of reaching outside ourselves to build a more caring commonwealth is more important than any personal disappointment.

I plan to honor the gifts of each of these men (as well as those by the men and woman among the AG and LG candidates) to us, not by asking no questions. Failing to determine where they stand isn't the answer. Indeed, we owe our fellow citizens as much. Rather, I'd like to thank each of them for:

• running;
• their sacrifice;
• their energy;
• their intellects;
• their resumes of public service;
• their unique experiences and perspectives;
• discussing the role of governor of our great Commonwealth,
• for challenging a misguided, regressive notion of government that must be challenged;
• and for advancing progressive ideals.

The citizens of Virginia are depending on them--and us. And the clear light of spring invites us all to begin.

2009-04-12T13:20:00.001-07:00

Rescue At Sea

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-04-09T17:02:00.000-07:00

Countdown Takes On Obama/Holder Dubious Claim of Sovereign Immunity, Even When the US Acts Illegally by Spying against Americans.

Yesterday Countdown took on Obama/Holder dubious claim of sovereign immunity, even when the US acts illegally by spying against Americans without cause. Take a look.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Eric Holder announced that the Obama administration not only supported Bush on state secrets in US v Jewell, but advanced a more expansive argument that the US has sovereign immunity. In other words, no one can sue the US government even when the US government acts illegally. The Electronic Frontier Foundation ‘s Kevin Bankston, litigator on behalf of the EFF in the case, discusses the case with Keith Olbermann. Take a look [here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30116228].

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30116228

2009-04-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Bill Moyers, Glenn Greenwald and Amy Goodman Discuss Celebrity Journalism

During the aftermath of the outing of Valerie Plame, Tim Russert admitted that he presumptively considered all of his conversations with insiders confidential. It is astounding that Russert was considered the model of tough journalism, when in fact he was was essentially embedded within the highest reaches of power and acting every day to protect it.

2009-03-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

GOP Gives Zero-based Budgeting New Meaning! (More on the GOP Non-Budget)

AS I indicated in a previous post, from the GOP, here's it's economic plan for American--the number zero, as in zero details and zero numbers (except the numbers 10% and 25% (more on that in a moment). Now that's budgeting! Every Harry and Harriet-the-Homeowner in America knows better than that. And if the GOP cannot come up with a true, meaningful alternative for the budget, then it should just pack it in, as in take a hike. In particular, the economically challenged John Boehner (R-CA) really should find another line of work. Don't get me started on Eric Cantor. Let me parse the between-the-lines of his and the GOP's "budget proposal." (Satire)

Here's what the hapless GOP stalwarts really mean:
Their Revenue Stream --Tax rates:
--Corporations: Take a tax holiday. You are all such responsible entities, "people" before our right-wing courts, and doers of good.
--Everyday folks: 10% tax rate (doesn't count "user's" fees).
--Those making over $100,000 25% (for the rich, that's three-three-three times the tax cut of Bush, and it would be the biggest tax cut for the rich in history, but never mind).

[No estimates of total revenue available--sorry. GOP doesn't want to admit this is a shut-down-the government budget.]

GOP Budget Expenditures:javascript:void(0)
--Defense and Offense: 80% of every dime it (the GOP) takes in--only to GOP supporting contractors.
--Faith Based Initiatives (Republican people of faith only need apply--"librul" religion is an oxymoron. Wait. Boehner doesn't know what oxymoron is.): 10%
--Corporate giveaways (because there isn't enough government favoritism toward corporations): 10% (and every thing else we can scrape up for 'em).

BTW, Their Idea of Oversight: GOP message to Corporations: "Have it it. Use every opportunity to install gotcha capitalism onto borrowers, telecom customers, medical consumers, and just about anyone buying anything. Have fun. Think of new ways ("products") to work over people with new and more interesting "contracts" and TOS. You don't have to worry about delivering good service or evening keeping up your end of a "contract." We don't care. PS There's no budget for oversight."

2009-03-26T17:12:00.001-07:00

The GOP Needs Your Help: Seriously, GOP Leaders Have Lost It

Today, the GOP House leaders fronted by US Rep John Boehner produced the magic potion which will cure all of America's budget woes. But it had no numbers. Read about it here.
And here's the video.

Here's Politico's report of what happened.

House Republicans unveiled their budget plan today — just two days after President Barack Obama called them out on national TV for not having one.

But at a news conference unveiling the plan, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner was peppered with questions about why he was offering only what he called a “blueprint” and not specific details. In fact, there were few specific numbers or line items — mostly just broad outlines.

“This is a blueprint,” Boehner responded, noting that House Republicans will bring their specific budget figures to the floor next week. “Wait till next week.”

One "word" is apt: bwahahahahhahaahah!

2009-03-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

On Eric Cantor's trip to Mars

A Caller to C-SPAN accused the Obama administration of fascism. This she says when the admin she apparently supported, was as close to a fascist state as we have ever had. She even falsely claimed the new Democratic administration was a "belligerent takeover." Cantor said nothing, apparently letting the outrageous statements pass for truth. Here's the story...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here's Howard Dean's take on the Cantor trip into outer space.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-03-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

Rachel Takes on the GOP and Wall Street

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-03-21T13:31:00.001-07:00

BWAHAHAHAHAH! Brit Hume Says Because of Blogs News Will Be More Partisan

[Hat Tip ThinkProgress]

At the blatantly wrong-wing Media Research Center's Award Gala this past week, Brit Hume, who got their award for journalism excellence (?!?!?!?!?), said the following:

HUME: What are we getting?…We’re getting bloggers and websites and all sorts of individual entrepreneurs, and we have a vaster menu of choices today than we’ve ever had. But I think that we also have the danger that everything will be presented from one political viewpoint or the other, and that the media that confront us are going to be more partisan than ever — which means that the Media Research Center will have a mission for many years to come, and a good thing that is.

Now that's funny! Here's a man spinning GOP talking points and all the while claiming blogs are the problem... Real News did away with itself long ago. And FAUX News helped seal the fate of Real News.

As Think Progress points out, it's even more funny when you learn that, in the same speech, Hume thanked the blatantly wrong-wing MRC for feeding him talking points, which he used on the air.

HUME: I want to say a word, however, of thanks, to [MRC president] Brent [Bozell] and to the team at the Media Research Center and all the contributors who make that work there possible. […] also for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report. I don’t know what we would have done without them. It was a daily, sort of a buffet of material to work from, and we — we — we certainly made tremendous use of it.

There you have it. FAUX News and Brit Hume are tools of the radical wing of the Republican Party. And not very good tools at that.

2009-03-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

John Stewart Is Better Than Cramer

First, The Jim Cramer Interview in Three Parts:

Part One here.

Part Two here.

Part Three here.

More Daily Show Commentary on CNBC:

Here.

Here.

And here.

2009-03-05T12:30:00.001-08:00

Yoo-thanizing Our Constitution
[The blog is crossposted at Blue Commonwealth.]

In an otherwise excellent post, as are most of his, Cvillelaw at Blue Commonwealth, says that the revoking of the Yoo Memos on January 15, 2009, was a triumph for the law. Here's the quote:

These memos have all been repudiated by OLC, and any doubt about their validity was removed when, on January 15, 2009, the OLC issued a new memo making clear that the logic contained in all of them had been abandoned. That is a belated triumph for the rule of law and for principled legal reasoning.

I respectfully disagree. There is no triumph of law here. This is the most sordid lawless period in US history. Worse, I think the Jan 15 exercise had more to do with "cya" than with the law. But there is much more to say. Over at Harpers Magazine, Scott Horton wrote:

We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.

But many of us did realize it. And we protested loudly. And as we warned others, we were demonized, even defamed, by watercarriers for the very ones who brought down the Constitution. We were told to "watch what you say." We were called "unpatriotic." We were harassed and shouted at by apologists for the authoritarians.

We hesitate to say, "I told you so." But we will say it nonetheless. It was an beginning of dictatorship. Of course, some of it was a figment of the imagination of a supposed scholar of the law, who'd do or say anything expected of him. But with a overly compliant populace and a willing military, that wouldn't matter. Rather than build national policies based on Constitutional law, the last administration justified itself based upon sophomoric "interpretations" of law by a worse-than-sophomoric in-house lawyer, who shamed his profession and our country. The legal "mind" sold out his country for ideology and ambition.

The situation was far more grave than many realize. Most knew there was torture, extraordinary rendition, and spying on Americans. But we may not have fully realized that we were not safe in our homes. From the Yoo memos, we now learn they perceived, or rather claimed, the right to attack domestic targets at will, to essentially do anything they wanted to instill tyranny. The Posse Comitatus Act and the First, and Fourth Amendments were dispensed with with the stroke of a memo. All that was missing was a big event to "justify it." We were saved by good luck. As Horton says:

Clearly such unlawful surveillance occurred. But the language of the memos suggest that much more was afoot, including the deployment of military units and military police powers on American soil. These memos suggest that John Yoo found a way to treat the Posse Comitatus Act as suspended.

Until the Republican Party purges itself of its authoritarian wing, we dare not entrust this county's leadership to it again. If the Democratic leadership does not take measures to hold those responsible accountable, Constitutional undoing could and likely would happen again. It will happen as surely as the hate radio talking heads spew their venomous rants, even now stirring up hate and repression.

It is our duty to push back against their sludge; their repressive inclinations; and their immoral appropriation of the rights, property, and even the lives of the majority of Americans. They had plans for anyone not seeing the world as they did--round them up and make them fodder for the prison-for-profit prison industrial complex. (They think we don't have enough in prison when the US imprisons 25% of those incarcerated around the world). We have 5% of the world's population. By any definition, we have a problem.

It was the one-two punch of Shock Doctrine: First, use catastrophe to impose a police state and, Second, confiscate the infrastructure and accumulated wealth of the 95% of Americans for the betterment of the 5%. Privatize everything in sight, even water systems (in some locales it's already too late). They were working on eliminating our safety net, the Social Security surplus, and everything else that wasn't nailed down. Those not incarcerated would be turned into minimum wage drones. That part is well underway. Make people work two, three even four jobs to make ends meet. And when they are sick, well -too bad. This version of America was rejected on Nov. 4 2008.

For the most part, Barack Obama is moving in a completely new and honorable direction. He is a good man. But there are warnings that we must be vigilant. Our president is under much pressure to feed the Shock Doctriners. There is no effort yet to stop the prisons in the desert, the concentration camps for immigrants, or prisons for profit. Rendition endures. The vestiges of infrastructure for spying on Americans remains in place. The wolves are howling for our infrastructure. Even the brother of the White House Chief of Staff seeks to shut off Medicare to new subscribers. The harbingers of the Shock Doctrine economic policy remain in place. We get to be grateful that Timothy Geitner at least blamed Bush for most of the current problems. And, of course, we'll still be stuck with Larry Summers. Those who are even worse have flooded the airwaves with their "free market" mythology (otherwise known as socialism for the wealthy and "free" enterprise for everyone else. Chris Matthew's inflammatory question, "Are we all socialists now?" misses the point. The government and corporate America are already deeply intertwined to the benefit of corporations, not citizens-at-large.

Every day Barack Obama does something to better what Bush left him. The question is can he work fast enough? Will Americans give him the support he needs to protect their interests? Town Halls will begin across America. Tell the President we'll back him up. But we need him to back us up. Tell him he has the support for single payer. Tell him he has the support to stand up against Max Baucus and Evan Bayh, who'd salve the rich on tax policy, but tell the rest of us --essentially, not literally--to go to hell. Remind him that the harbingers of Shock Doctrine lost Nov 4th and we want change, lots more of it.

2009-03-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

Short Take: Lies, Lies, and More Lies About Obama Marginal Tax Rates

From the howling of nearly all Congressional Republicans and, more recently, the predictable treachery of protect-the-rich-at-all-cost Democratic Senators Max Baucus (MT)and Evan Bayh (IN), you would think that Obama wanted to unfairly tax the rich. Yeh, the rich that got so disproportionately more rich while the rest of us sunk from any chance at the so-called American dream. But as blogger Steve Benen points out, such false claims quickly fall when one knows this:

As Now would be a very good time to point out how truly insane all of this is. Obama is talking about a 39.6% top rate. In Reagan's first term, it was 50%. Under Nixon, it was 70%. When FDR pulled us out of the Great Depression, it was around 80%.

Read Steve Benen's blog at Washington Monthly here. It is amazing how misleading, obstructionist and blatantly selfish these folks are. They've gotten an historic free lunch at the public trough. But even a slight sacrifice is just too much. As for our esteemed Dems, Bachus is at work trying to obstruct other Obama proposals as well. With people like this on our side of the aisle, who needs enemies? Did I mention, let's run someone against Baucus and Bayh in their next primary?

2009-03-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

Top Ten GOP Idiots

One of the more enjoyable blog columns is the regular weekly list of the GOP's biggest idiots that week. Check it out here...

2009-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

Bobby Jindal and "Truthiness"

Bobby Jindal's amateurish and sad speech Wednesday night was not just those things. It also included a lie.

2009-02-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

Prisons-for-Profit Undermine Everyone’s Rights, Not “Just” Those of the Accused

[Note: This blog is cross-posted at Blue Commonwealth]

Senator James Webb has put prison and related reforms on the front burner. And not a moment too soon. Jim deserves considerable credit for taking this complex set of issues on, when most pols continue to scramble to “prove” they are tougher on supposed criminals than the next guy. If they cared half as much about the innocent, I would be more impressed. But even for the guilty, the system is often too harsh. As Webb himself points out, wE have 5 % of the worlds population, but 25% of its inmates. Something is clearly amiss.

Certainly, the throw-away-the-key approach to sentencing is part of the problem. It’s of doubtful Constitutionality as well. The legislative branch is not supposed to tie the hands of the judiciary and make it meaningless. Over-sentencing for small-time drug offenses lands far too many in hard time without treatment. The lucky ones get treatment—and hope of actually breaking out of the recidivism cycle.

But most of all is this: The United States’ increased use of prisons for profit despoil the Constitution, turn the government into the worst kind of industry colluders, and turns the government against its own citizens to assist corporation who profit from imprisonment of more and more Americans.

Now comes an AP story here and here to illustrate this point better than I ever could. It seems that judges in Pennsylvania stand accused of jailing kids for cash. The kids get a minimalist “hearing,” no rights whatsoever, and summarily are sent off to juvenile detention. The judge(s) and the prison company smile all the way to the bank.

Two judges in particular have pocketed millions to incarcerate America’s children in PA Child Care LLC ad a sister company , Western PA Child Care, LLC, both operators of juvenile detention prisons. 2.6 million dollars in fact. Thousands of kids lives are ruined forever by the relentless profit motive elevated over human decency and morality. One of the “judges” had a lock-up rate 2.5 times the national average.

In this case, there out to be a law. There is a law against what the two judges did. They are both expected to plead guilty to fraud. That is not enough. But more to the point, there ought to be another law—against prisons and juvenile detention centers for profit. It guarantees that people will be lawlessly rounded up for little reason except to enrich the despicable. Some things should never be privatized. And prisons are one class of them.

The next time you thank Sen. Webb for his courageous work, you might also mention your concern about this specific problem. It’s one more crucial piece of reform that cannot happen a moment too soon.

2009-01-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

Please Follow Me To My New Blog

I will not completely fold my old blog, DemocracyUpsdide Down, but I will do much of my blogging at my new blog here. It's called Donkey Hokie. As many know, the donkey (particularly a feisty donkey) is the symbol of Democratic Party. And Hokies, well, they are the mascot of my alma mater. However, I will especially rely on my old blog whenever, evidence of democracy upside down appears, even (let's hope not) at the hands of Dems. Meanwhile, I'll also be at my new site linked above. And, I'll be doing a lot of blogging at Blue Commonwealth Please join me.

2009-01-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

Olbermann Nails It: Eight Years in Eight Minutes

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

2009-01-25T12:11:00.001-08:00

A New Day....

2009-01-24T15:28:00.000-08:00

A Ticket is Supposed to Be a Ticket: My Morning in the Purple Tunnel of Doom (and Reflections in the Aftermath)

I thought I’d wheel my way home, (nautural) high from the exhilaration of the Inauguration carrying me on a virtual cloud back to the Burg. I’d roll up my sleeves, put myself back to work on the Change (with a big C) Barack Obama talks about and promised to usher in. I’d work on the grassroots group organization to have Barack’s back, to build grassroots support for his initiatives, to fact-check the opposition. I’d breathe deep the mountain air, savor the sweet smell of cold earth, and bask in the feel of a Blue Virginia. But this is another story altogether.

Though I and my husband had the coveted Purple tickets for the Inauguration, we saw none of it, not even in real-time on TV. We were trapped in what is now nicknamed the Purple Tunnel of Doom, denied entry to possibly the greatest day in our nation’s history and certainly the most important (non birth, or marriage) day in my life. I did what I was told. I got to my gate while it was still dark around 6:30 AM, but couldn’t find where the line even was. We made several false starts, heading slowly back and forth through the congested corner. It was crowded and confusing there, but lawful and calm. It should be noted that there was not one single arrest on January 20th in Washington DC. That alone tells the story. And it makes it more appalling that ultimately, we responsible, calm, friendly legitimate ticket holders were ordered (for no reason) by DC police into the Third Street Tunnel.

I do not know Washington well. Had I know what tunnel I was in, I would have walked out the other side, walked to the nearest Metro station and gone back to where were staying. But I didn’t know it was the Third St tunnel, the tunnel where I previously read that they would offload buses of festivities goers. The Third Street tunnel was also a pass-through for those who needed to cross to the opposite side of the Mall, but couldn’t cross Pennsylvania Ave. Had I known better, I’d have known we were never getting in. Instead, after extensive deprivation (freezing air blowing at us from wall vents, dampness, ear-splitting sirens assaulting our ears as cars whisked through, absence of all creature comforts), we waited and got nowhere over many hours. Any appearance of progress, we later learned occurred because of compression and widening of the line up top. Late in our wait, a scout went up top on our behalf (there was zero information, zero officiating, zero police protection, zero rope lines—even Disneyland can do better than this). I can almost hear comedian Jerry Seinfeld saying, “You see a ticket is supposed to BE a ticket. And it’s not a ticket if it doesn’t get you in.” There was no good-faith effort to honor our tickets at the Purple gate.

I was walking on air when I got word that I’d get a ticket for myself and my husband. My Congressman and his staff couldn’t have known what was waiting for us on Tuesday. They conveyed to us the much sought after tickets with good intentions. I will treasure always that I received them. And yet things did not turn out the way he and his staff thought they would. Still, without question, my gratitude and respect for them is intact. It is not their fault.

Moreover, I am mindful that in the scheme of life what I write of is nothing compared to real tragedies, profound losses (as in life and health). This very week, as we attended a reception in the Rayburn Office Building, given by Congressman Boucher, his wife, Amy had to sub for him. He was back home in Abingdon, his wonderful, inspiring, accomplished, and brave mother struggling for her life. She ultimately lost it Wednesday. That is profound loss, real sorrow. It seems almost sacrilegious to mention it here in this context because it is on a completely different plane. I lost my own father less than three years ago. And though he lived a long, good life, it still hurts.

Yes, I know the difference between life’s real tragedies, global or national crises, and personal disappointments. Mr. Bush seems to not have a clear idea of the different between colossal failure, catastrophic failure, and disappointment. His not finding WMDs was a”disappointment” to him, as if starting a war for no reason were somehow a trifle. No, Mr. Bush, that was a colossal blunder of massive proportion, bringing crisis, even ruin upon a country, fiscal ruin at home, and massive loss of life. That was not “disappointment.” Yes, I know the difference. My January 20th was a major disappointment, the worst disappointment I ever had. On a continuum of personal disappointments, however, this felt worse than when I lost my job to the downsizer’s ax.

In my 2008 Christmas letter to friends I wrote of the best and worst of times. Once again, ironically, on this Great Day (and Best of Times), for me, it was simultaneously the worst of times. A ticket is supposed to be a ticket. I wish my President so many good wishes. Already he is doing numerous good things, of which I will blog when the wind hits my sails again. But I lost something precious on January 20, 2009--the dream that amazing things can happen, even to me, just once in my life. And I wonder if I can ever get it back.

It was this Inauguration, among all Inaugurations, that I wanted to see. It was this Inauguration which brought us full circle from that time when we joined the civil rights movement forty years ago, founding a human relations group in our living room (my husband serving as its first president and I giving speeches to community groups about fair housing). It was this election we sought, those forty long years ago, as we helped in our small way to piece-by-piece help build a country where this could happen. It was this election that we worked for (without knowing it) even way back then in primary 1968, when we tried to oust a sitting president—and he decided not to run. (And it was every election since). It was this election night at Grant Park which we sought to juxtapose to that awful Grant Park night back in 1968.

Yes, we have come full circle. It was forty years of activism by ALL of us, including me. It was the standing out at the polls and canvassing in below zero wind chills. It was the canvassing in years (such as 1968) when many couldn't or wouldn't. It was working for equal rights for women, the Equal Rights Amendment that never (even today) passed. It’s the issue advocacy for progressive values even during terms we were not “in power.” It was the 10-20 hours of activism a week (for two years) I spent trying to stave off the removal from office of President Bill Clinton. It’s a lifetime of phone banking, organizing, letter writing, op-ed writing, blogging(even on blog precursors). It was the poring our heartfelt energy into it… From the primary of 1968 to today, this was our moment, as Barack said. The perfect culmination of everything.

It was this election that we helped make possible with our nonstop work for Howard Dean. He ushered in the mouse pads and shoe leather campaign which made all this possible. In 2004 he was the first top-tier candidate in many years to use universal health care as one of his main issues. It was he who, along with Dennis Kucinich opposed the war, and helped make opposing it mainstream. Overwhelmingly, now, Americans see that Howard Dean was right about that. And it was he, through his Dean Dozen, and later DFA A-List, which made Barack Obama-for-Senate the very first pick. Barack Obama now belongs to us all (and the world). Somehow, though, watching a rerun and not having seen it in real time at all feels emptier than I can say. It was the day the world passed me by and I was supposed to be there. Instead I was entombed in the bowels of an uncaring city, left to rot like so much garbage. America partied on the earth above our very heads, while we were sequestered in the Purple Tunnel of Doom, ironically treated as though we had no place. There were thousands of us. Some even singing “Lean on Me,” But I never felt so alone.

From Capitol So., I cried all the way back to Van Dorn. I wasn’t the only one. Most of the people riding had been shut out of either Blue or Purple gates. Once back at my uncle’s house, through tears I watched the rerun of the speech. And then I went to bed even as Washington partied. I am not jealous of those partying overhead on Jan 20th. I truly wanted everyone there to feel the joy. Rather, I am deeply hurt.

There is talk about the JCCIC sending us Purple and Blue “rejects” some programs and photos in the mail. But I already have my official program. Don’t they know they came with our tickets? They need to do something, what I am not sure. Certainly that shouldn’t include the idiotic notion, bandied about by a wistful few, of throwing money at the problem. That would change nothing. And there are not the funds to do it anyway. It would be unseemly to even suggest there is a monetary value on what we missed. But those who say “stop whining,” just do not get it. They could only get it if they had been denied even the chance to get onto the mall in the un-ticketed space. If they had told us the truth, at least we could have made our way to the Lincoln Memorial. That would have been something.

Above all, this can never happen again. It just cannot. The brush off by the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, that there were 236,00 happy customers, is an outrage. No one should have to experience what the gate security and DC police did to us that day.

Additionally, there are Several Questions Needing an Answer
•How could security at Congressional offices screen the same number of ticket holders on Monday, when they picked up their tickets, but not on Tuesday?
•Why were we forced to line up where unticketed people were passing through as well? This complicated the situation.
•Why were folks without tix allowed into ticketed gates and those with them not?
•Was anyone paid off to let unticketed people into the ticketed area?
•Was there any counterfeiting of tickets?
•Why were we not told anything? Why was apparently only one scanner used?
•Why did photos on TV seem to show people in our spaces?
•Why were some people without tickets processed through ticketed gates?
•Why did our line not progress at all in over five hours?
•Why were there no line workers, no one informing us?
•Why were there no porta potties?

Epilogue: The only “good” thing I learned is that I can manage to go without a restroom access for 9 hours. Somehow I do not think this “accomplishment” will hold me in good stead in 2013 when I’ll be nearly 70. Next time not only won’t be the same, it won’t likely be doable at all. My “accomplishment” does nothing to lighten the crushing disappointment of the day I had a ticket, but became a non person before my government. It’s not that I have felt all that empowered by my government before. It is just that I expected better on this of all days. I had a ticket, after all.

I cannot think much about the Inauguration Day others saw yet. Instead I am focusing on what has already changed for the better. One day, I hope another image will supplant my experiences of January 20th. I will try to replace it with the sight and sound September 9th of an image such as this: As I began to wind my way home on the highway near Lebanon High School, the helicopter bearing my president-to-be and my congressman sliced a crescent through the evening sky. It was around 7:45 PM. And as I drove the long ride home from the Town Hall I had the honor to cover for RaisingKaine.com (our former and beloved statewide progressive blog), I whispered, “Godspeed, Barack. Godspeed, Rick.” "Take good care of them," I said quietly to the pilot. "They are our future." Then, with Springsteen cranked up, I let the exhilaration of that Town Hall carry me all the way back to Blacksburg.

2009-01-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

2009-01-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

Revisionism 201: Sarah Palin Blames Everyone--But Herself

2008-12-29T11:46:00.001-08:00

And Another from the Past (in 2005)

The Heart of a Blogger (Part I)

We hear way too much about George W. Bush's "compassionate" heart. But few supporters of this administration care to look into the hearts of those they'd prefer to demonize. I've been listening and reading attacks on anyone who questions this authoritarian regime in Washington and I can hardly believe what passes for acceptable broadcast.

Bill O'Reilly calls for the FBI to arrest the folks at Air America Radio. He wants all donors to the ACLU investigated. In America! He equates a legitimate media watch group, Media Matters for America, with the Ku Klux Klan. For an hour every weeknight and for hours on talk radio, this man tries to stir to a frenzy the worst in us, turning fellow citizens against one another. He bullies people before cameras and creates a hostile environment for anyone dissenting from government policy. The subtext is: Americans, be too afraid to stand up and speak out. (Stop by MediaMatters.org for hundreds of examples.) And he calls some of the very people who, through the past half century, have spoken most ardently in support of those victims of Holocaust, Nazis. Yes, the world is upside down.

Meanwhile, Ann Coulter says people should talk to liberals (if they must) with baseball bats. And the pundit network of the extreme right is quickly circling the wagons around Cindy Sheehan. Bullies will savage any target, even a soft-spoken woman whose heart aches for her lost son.

Writers to newspapers call those who report the truth "traitors" and those who question "terrorist sympathizers." Thomas Freidman thinks America needs an enemies list for those whom he calls "excusers," those who think Bush is making the world situation more volatile. Obviously the terrorists are responsible for their deeds. But even a hint that someone sees Bush as making the situation in Iraq worse gets that individual on the list. What have we become? Does Thomas Friedman hear himself.

Elsewhere on the net, I've noted that many have given countless hours to make a difference. Bloggers do too. And yet, in the so-called MSM you'd think that progressive bloggers are bringing on a host of ills. The real truth is we give our time to our communities and our country because we care. We care about showing spine when it is called for. Courage even. When many of our national leaders of both parties failed us in giving Bush an unwarranted blank check in Iraq, we took to our computers and wrote letters to try to make a difference.

It's way past time for more of us to blog as if our country depends on it. It does. By the thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands, or even millions) bloggers are pouring out their hopes and dreams for our country. One could argue, Who needs another? The old adage "in unity there is strength," applies. And so, it is with a heavy heart of my own, but one who'll never give up on the country I love, that I enter this moveable type into the blogosphere.

2008-12-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

Then and Now: A Few Old Posts Before I Retire This Blog and Move to My New Site

Here's where I started back in 2005.

The world is upside down.

You know it's true. It sometimes feels like we've morphed into an old Saturday Night Live Bizzaro World episode. Initiatives of the Bush administration are labeled the opposite of what they do (Clear Skies, No Child Left Behind, the Energy Bill/corporate giveaway, Social Security reform). The leader says that freedom's beautiful, then eradicates much of the Bill of Rights. Despite all evidence to the contrary, this (p)resident attacked a country which didn't attack us and claimed we were safer because of it. In Virginia, the candidate of Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell alleges himself to be closer to Mark Warner than Warner's own partner, Lt. Governor Tim Kaine (ROTFL). And Jerry Kilgore, who purports to care about schools and fiscal responsibility, opposed every responsible step our governor and a bipartisan group of legislators achieved for Virginia's benefit.

As I've said before, you'd think we'd be used to it by now. And you'd think we wouldn't expect much else. We hold our president and, often, our lawmakers to such low standards. And so, when our leaders and pseudo-leaders tell us what we can do for them and not the other way around, one has to ask: Is everything upside down, never to be set upwards again? Upside down is what I'd call a caucus I attended this past spring where the one candidate spoke only of what we could do for him and not what he'd do for our state. But the worst culprit in recent memory is running for governor on the Republican ticket. Jerry Kilgore is full of ideas for how we can be on-our own and up the creek. Bush's on-your-ownership -- newer, fresher and uncut.

For the privilege, we are supposed to hire Kilgore to serve as His Honor, the Buck Passer. There's no tax he'd leave uncut. Just when Virginia is on more solid footing, he'd further gut state revenues by escalating the end of the car tax. He'd persist with that, he says, no matter what else the need. We'd have been there before.

Now Kilgore says he'd solve the problem of education with day-late-and-dollar-short provisions. He'd give a whopping 100 students engineering scholarships. His fund for teacher excellence is laughable in its simplicity and under-reaching. Worse, pay for performance (merit pay) is no magic bullet. Industry has used it for years, higher education for at least a decade. Where was Jerry? A bonus system for high-demand subjects? Been there; done that. Expand course offerings at community colleges? A new college for South-side? What's new? The Democrats before him are already on task. But I'll tell you what's new. SOL's, a tidy mechanism for more political mischief, will enable Jerry to put more low performing schools out of busintransferredtheir assets transfered to private companies rather than fix what's wrong. SOLs also provide the data that the Kilgore's of the world will no-doubt try to use to punish teachers (hence merit pay). The trouble is that teachers could be punished unfairly when their enrollments have disproportionate numbers of low-achieving students, students learning English as a second language, or students with special needs. Kilgore also has a plan to steer more public school dollars to private schools. Students going to private colleges would get more money--the old de-fund public colleges trick. It's all smoke and mirrors. Kilgore hopes we are too ignorant to read the fine print.

The biggest joke is that this man who thinks we should trust him to govern because, ya' know, he trusts us, plans to fold all tax increase decisions back on us, the voters. Already, with our part-time legislature, we have government by delay (no pun intended). In a Kilgore government, we'd have referenda for money decisions, government by the AWOL. He gets paid; we decide. But Jerry Kilgore would solve the problem of alleged big government (did you ever notice that nationally government is largest under Republicans?) with truly intrusive government: meddle in everyday private matters, end of life decisions, even medical decisions. But feeding the hungry, schools, health care, senior care, mental health, hey, that's "big government."

Honestly, with so-called leaders like this, who needs a governor. I am not a government nihilist. I believe there is an important role of government to play. We can't do everything a society needs ourselves. And there's an important regulatory role, as the reckless de-regulators have shown us. But a Kilgore government would be worse than nothing. It would be government upside down. And the average Harry and Harriet the Homeowner, already beleaguered, will come to believe they've died and gone to hell.

Leadership and government function best when they are dual-path. The direction should flow back and forth from leaders to followers. That's because leadership is an interactive process. Leaders affect followers and vice verse. Getting the grassroots involved is normally a good thing. But leadership by poll-taking isn't leadership at all. To expect voters to micromanage government is just one more way to overburden voters. Already we must serve as our own gas station attendant, U-Scan checker at the supermarket, travel agent, online retail clerk, delivery person, medical advocate, prescription drug expert (to protect ourselves from inflated claims by drug companies), retirement planner, dietician, computer and internet tech support, even journalist because the so-called MSM has failed us. How much more on-your-ownership can we take? The bottom line is that job enlargement like this is not job enrichment. And it's not fulfilling or democratizing. It overwhelms. And, given the directions the Republicans are taking this country, people are overwhelmed enough without hiring an empty suit for governor. His default leadership would bring administrative, legislative, fiscal, economic, and humanitarian default to Virginia once again. We'll see how much he trusts the people when we send him packing.

2008-12-29T08:48:00.001-08:00

New Tapes Reveal LBJ Knew Nixon's Camp tried to Up-End Peace Talks

2008-12-10T12:01:00.001-08:00

Jon Stewart Takes on Mike Huckabee on Gay Marriage

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

2008-11-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

I Did Not Stand in the Rain (I Should Have)

I did not stand in the rain ten days ago, in protest of the anti-human, anti-happiness California Prop 8 crowd's vote. I should have. I will next time. And the time after that. That's because the purveyors of hate really are "rearing their heads." It's not Putin whose in our "airspace," but rather the newly Palinized hatemongers, who've gotten a shot in the arm from the GOP VP nominee and from their precipitous slide into demagoguery and hate-mongering.

I am proud of my brother in California who posted a "No to Prop 8" on his law. Who'd have thought that that was an act of courage in the supposedly progressive state of California? But it was.

We must stand united against the purveyors of hate taking away rights in Calif (my once, long ago --sigh--home state). In combination, all the singular acts of courage become more (Step by step" as the song goes--I just heard John McCutcheon sing it last week).

We must stand against the nihilists in their suspending of rights and in their threatening Americans, including our newly elected leader. We cannot abide their threatening those who are not like them. The story on the blogs about WBC's sick protest at Barack Obama's grandmother's memorial service shows the lengths and miles the anti-gay extremists will go. So, even as we continue to feel joy on many levels since November 4th, we cannot forget our fellow citizens, who are still reeling from their loss that very same day in California. For too many, it's still a gray day (in need of a rainbow).

I urge everyone to join a rights protest wherever they live. There will be many in coming weeks and months. If thunderstorms seem intimidating, find a sunnier day to protest. Just do it. Whenever you do it, it will help. We've been too quiet while hiding behind concepts like "civil unions." Indeed, Democrats, all Democrats, really need to come out in the sunlight about this. Many of us Dems have thought this way. At one time, not that many years ago, I did. And, I actually thought there would be progress while I sat on the sidelines, that progress would somehow happen. Nov 4th and since, I couldn't believe it would come to this. I should have known better. After all, in Virginia we've seen many attempt to "protect" marriage, as if bigots ever could.

There's no more pretending we can hide from this.
We know what the right thing is: To stop legislating happiness. As Keith Olbermann said, GLBT citizens have a right to be happy just as we do. Prop 8 and the entire anti-movement is about overtly undoing a right to happiness for a significant sector our population. But worse, it's about scape-goating. No matter how many heterosexual marriages fail, it is not the fault of America's gay population. It's time Americans stop pretending otherwise. In their mean spirited punitiveness, they aren't protecting anything. And, undeniably, for too many, it's about hate. Those hiding behind "scripture," should read what the Bible really says in context.
That person needing his or her freedoms is closer than many people think.

Most of us know citizens who happen to be born gay. This is so whether we know they are gay or not. Our fellow citizens need us. As long as some in America are not free, none of us is. So if caring about our fellow humans, who are suffering over the wave of rights elimination, isn't enough motivation for standing up to the anti-rights folks, think about this: The next right taken away may be ours.

2008-11-10T05:48:00.001-08:00

It's a New Day

2008-11-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Awesome Landscape: Reflections

Follow the link over to RaisingKaine.com here.

2008-11-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

From One Friend's Porch: Re-birthing Grassroots Democracy

Read about it [here http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=17064].

2008-11-03T12:00:00.001-08:00

Here We Go...To the Finish Line

2008-11-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Virginians for (Real) Change

2008-10-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

A Letter To My Fellow Citizens

We stand at a pivotal moment in history. How will future Americans judge what we do this Tuesday? Will our children and grandchildren know we tried to help America change course? Will we choose unity rather than division, hope rather than fear, positive ideas or failed policies of the past, good stewardship of America's resources or massive giveaways to crony donors? Our choice has never been clearer. At this most challenging time, only Barack Obama has courage of his convictions, constructiveness of approach, steadiness under pressure, the energy, ideas, intellect and proposals for real change to lead our country. On November 4th, our nation needs your vote for Barack Obama for president.

Overwhelmingly, Americans believe we are on the wrong path. We desperately need real change. As Barack Obama reminds us, real change isn't the same party doing the same things that have wrecked our nation's economy. It's not pretend reformers who say one thing and do another. We've lived for most of the past six decades with Republicans in charge, when our problems have mounted, corruption increased, deficits grown, and size of government expanded.

"Trickle-down economics" failed. Excessive de-regulation imperiled us all. Our beloved nation's economy has been jeopardized by this administration and its irresponsible supporters like John McCain, who voted with Bush over 90% of the time. John McCain has no plan to leave Iraq and is clueless of its economic impact here at home. As costs of the Bush-McCain war without end weigh down our economy, McCain's economic plan coddles the very companies causing the problems we face.

Meanwhile, the poor and middle class suffer the consequences of Bush-McCain incompetence. Americans do better under Democratic presidents. It is our holy responsibility and sacred trust to provide good stewardship.

How does John McCain acknowledge and handle this responsibility? He admits he has no grasp of economics. His own chief economic adviser, Phil Gramm, is part of the problem. Gramm's massive energy and banking deregulation paved the way for both the terrible Enron collapse and the current banking and mortgage crises. John McCain's campaign manager is Freddie Mac lobbyist, Rick Davis, who tried to prevent regulations that could have prevented the current crisis. No-reformer McCain has 177 lobbyists working on his campaign, including 83 from the banking and mortgage industries alone.

Bush-McCain Republicans have gone too far. But John McCain plans even more reckless deregulation and more tax cuts for the rich, both of which will only make our situation worse. And just this week we learned that, in his waning days in office, George W. Bush is ramming through more deregulation without Congressional approval.

Barack Obama will right the mistakes of George Bush, not continue them, as John McCain would do. John McCain has no economic plan and no ideas, so he misrepresents the facts about Barack Obama. Barack Obama will re-introduce reasonable, but necessary banking regulation to protect Americans. Any economic stimulus Obama proposes is "paid for" by cuts to other programs, or increasing taxes upon the wealthy (who've benefited disproportionately even as the rest of us have seen our dreams go up in smoke). Unless you fall within the top 5% of Americans, your taxes won't go up.

The majority of small businesses won't have their taxes go up either. Barack Obama will remove incentives for companies which export our jobs and reward those who grow US jobs. Read more about it at www.BarackObama.com.

The Wall St. Journal reported that John McCain plans to cut 1.3 trillion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, much-needed programs which are already hurting. Seniors shouldn't have to worry if crucial programs will be there for them. Few seniors can afford the draconian cuts McCain plans.

McCain also plans to privatize Social Security. He won't call it that, but it's privatization just the same. His plan for "personal accounts" is a scheme to defund Social Security system and divert funds to private accounts for the young. But, McCain's plan, by design, will ultimately cause the system to run out of money. All generations will be up the creek and out of luck. The current Wall Street volatility shows how risky market-driven Social Security would be. Barack Obama will oppose any effort to privatize Social Security and he'll restore its financial position so it's there for current and future retirees.

Barack Obama will protect the work-related pensions of Americans. I can tell you that, without a president who cared about such matters (as Bill Clinton did), my own parents would have lost their pension due to a corporation trying to skip out on its pensioners. If you care about pension protection, it matters which party is in office.

For those not on Medicare or Medicaid, Obama's health care plan will expand access to health insurance and make it more affordable. It is not, as McCain falsely claims, government-run medical care. It's just common sense approaches to make the system we have work better for all of us. John McCain's plan is really noninsurance. All McCain offers is a tax credit of $2,500 ($5,000 per couple) after you buy coverage on your own. Unlike Barack Obama's plan, McCain's non-plan offers no help for those who are priced out of insurance, have preexisting conditions, or have been canceled. McCain would tax health insurance benefits offered by employers, which could undermine the employer provided insurance most Americans have. Without the purchasing power of groups, insurance costs would escalate under McCain. So, under McCain noninsurance, more people would go bankrupt due to medical expenses.

In contrast, Barack Obama's plan offers you the option of keeping your current plan or having access to the same insurance plan Congress has. In other words, you'd be able to buy a policy like your member of Congress has. Remember, this is not government-run health care.

Unlike John McCain, Barack Obama sees education as the cornerstone in our democracy. We need informed citizens (and leaders) so we can navigate the complex world we live in. Sarah Palin is the most ill-informed VP candidate in history. John McCain hasn't even entered the digital age (he doesn't know how to use a computer or email). John McCain is just out of touch. Barack Obama role models learning, not only in his own education, curiosity, and idea exploration. He fosters the same in his children. But he knows parents can only do so much on their own. We must see the education of our young and better public schools a compact we make with the young. Schools don't need more unfunded mandates which drag them down.

Barack Obama also will open up college doors to more students and ease the burden of debt saddling graduates by allowing more of them to give public service in exchange for tuition. For those who don't choose college, he supports better technical training program options.

Ironically, while the Bush administration has expanded government and has led the most intrusive efforts against US citizens ever launched in America, McCain-Palin assert that Democrats are the party of big government! Americans worry about the Constitutional over-reaching by the Bush administration, for example, by operating under the flawed notion of the "unitary executive." Bush believes the president can do whatever he wants, regardless of the law or other two branches of government. But McCain-Palin aren't satisfied. Recently, Palin went so far as to say she'd expand the power of the Vice Presidency even more.

The Bush doctrine of preemptive war has violated our own and international law. Now, even US citizens can be imprisoned, held for no reason-- if the president says so. McCain claimed to oppose Bush on the elimination of habeas corpus, NSA spying against Americans, and torture. Then he caved and supported the Bush agenda. In a tantrum last September, McCain called for three million members of the centrist political action group Moveon.org (which supported Bill Clinton against impeachment and Al Gore for president) to be kicked out of America!

Political vendettas are not the change we need. The pendulum has swung too far and must be brought back nearer the center. What will we tell our grandchildren about taking a stand in defense of our Constitution?

Barack Obama believes there is a role for government on our behalf, not by intruding itself into our private lives, or doing what we can do for ourselves, but rather by doing what individuals cannot do for themselves: civil and national defense; education; infrastructure; oversight; consumer protection; sound environmental and economic stewardship; diplomacy; and national and international conflict management.

But when the chips are down, when all else has failed, we know that we are our brother's keeper. We honor the humanity of even, and especially, the least well off among us. We strive to build something better for our country-it's our shared purpose, our legacy.
Barack Obama has worked tirelessly on real ethics reform, which he passed by reaching across the aisle in a real bipartisanship.

Barack Obama worked with Dick Lugar to secure the world's nuclear stockpiles and make us safer, while his opponent has been AWOL. John McCain's record shows he's better at grandstanding than actually reforming anything. When McCain pretends to reform a program or government process, he then reverses his support, guts the bill, or votes against it (even bills with his name on them). He even gutted McCain Feingold. McCain feigns care about veterans and then votes against Sen. Jim Webb's GI bill of rights. Then he claims he's a "reformer."

Barack Obama will make the federal government work for citizens again, be more transparent, and more accessible. Obama has spent his whole life working to make his community, state and nation better.

The ten-billion-dollars-a-month Iraq War drags on with no end in sight. We must be tough on terrorism, but the Iraq war is making that harder. Barack Obama will end our commitment there, a country which has asked us to leave. He'll keep us safe, but he understands that staying in Iraq makes us less so. He had the judgment to oppose this war from the beginning. He warned that, in fighting the war in Iraq, we'd became diverted from the task of finding and punishing those who actually threaten us. And, we have.

Barack Obama will never hesitate to protect and defend us, but he'll wage war only when necessary. And he'll tell us the truth about it. And John McCain dangerously guarantees us "there will be more wars" and an even more belligerent agenda than George W. Bush had. But worse, John McCain doesn't understand, much less practice, diplomacy. His statements and press conferences reveal ignorance of international relations, geography, and history. He confuses countries, which country borders on which, or which Iraqi sects are which, which ones are "for us" and which are "against us." Recently, he mistakenly thought that the president of Spain was not an ally of the US.

Coupled with a VP nominee who knows nothing whatsoever about foreign affairs, the Republican ticket would be disastrous for America. It's about time we reject absurd notion that our nation's CEO can take pride in ignorance. Our nation and its destiny are too important.

In addition to moral considerations (war should be a last, not a first resort), we must acknowledge that waging war without end and/or wars on multiple fronts is not sustainable. Barack Obama will re-engage real diplomacy on our behalf and restore American leadership around the world, which comes not at the point of a gun, but rather in the strength of our ideas and ideals. It comes from our credibility, which under this Republican regime, is sorely lacking.

I am so proud that Barack Obama is running for president. We need his ideas; energy; strength; and calm, steady leadership to weather this economic storm. We need Barack Obama to bring us government of, for and by the people again. Barack Obama is a leader for our time, a once-in-a-lifetime leader. He's done everything he can to earn our vote. Now it's up to us to make it happen.

Democrats, Independents, and many Republicans join with us in a new national unity to change course. In greater numbers than ever before, we'll go to the polls. We'll wait in line and put up with any inconvenience (as long as it takes). With hope in the future, faith in ourselves and in our candidate, we stand proud. We are ready for the national healing our choice portends and the responsibility it connotes. Moving forward, we pledge our continued commitment to engaged citizenship.

It is the least we can do for the country we love.

(Cross-posted at RaisingKaine.com)

2008-10-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Remember Who We Are (From OurFuture.org)

Here's the ad Ourfuture.org ran in the NYT:

2008-10-29T14:45:00.001-07:00

McSame in His Own Words

2008-10-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Olbermann Takes on Sarah Palin's Extremism

2008-10-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

What Joe Biden Really Said: Barack Obama "Has Got Steel in His Spine"

The lying sliming morally bankrupt McCain campaign takes everything out of context and generally misrepresents or lies about everything. Last Friday, he said Obama would "invite testing." Previously, McCain said he himself would invite testing. But never mind...

However, the most pathetic aspect to this fear-mongering claim is that they have totally misrepresented what Biden actually said.

Then they lied that Madelyn Albright thinks Barack Obama is totally unprepared to be president. Madelyn herself tonight said that's totally untrue. Tonight she said "he's the best of all possible people to lead us" at this time, "because of the way he approaches things." She also said "we need a candidate who can multi-task and not panic." But panic and show an incapacity to multi-task is just what we saw from John McCain in the beginning of this economic crisis.

But it's just another lying, scheming day on the McCain-Palin campaign trail.

2008-10-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama’s New Hampshire Primary Speech

You can tell a lot about someone by how they react when they are down. Here's the most beautiful speech I've heard in a long time. It's almost lyrical, especially in the last third or so. The following is a transcript of Senator Barack Obama's speech to supporters after the New Hampshire primary.

BARACK OBAMA: Thank you, New Hampshire. I love you back. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much. I am still fired up and ready to go. (APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you.

Well, first of all, I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire. She did an outstanding job. Give her a big round of applause.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, a few weeks ago, no one imagined that we'd have accomplished what we did here tonight in New Hampshire. No one could have imagined it.

For most of this campaign, we were far behind. We always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out, and you spoke up for change.

And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.

(APPLAUSE)

There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport, in Lebanon and Concord, come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.

There is something happening. There's something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit, who've never participated in politics before, turn out in numbers we have never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.

There's something happening when people vote not just for party that they belong to, but the hopes that they hold in common.

And whether we are rich or poor, black or white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.

That's what's happening in America right now; change is what's happening in America.

You, all of you who are here tonight, all who put so much heart and soul and work into this campaign, you can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness.

Democrats, independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington, who know that we can disagree without being disagreeable, who understand that, if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence that stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there is no problem we cannot solve, there is no destiny that we cannot fulfill. Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care in our time. We can bring doctors and patients, workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together, and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that, while they get a seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair, not this time, not now.

(APPLAUSE)

Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut in the pockets of working Americans who deserve it.

We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success.

We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness by giving them more pay and more support. We can do this with our new majority.

We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists, citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return.

And when I am president of the United States, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home.

(APPLAUSE)

We will end this war in Iraq. We will bring our troops home. We will finish the job -- we will finish the job against Al Qaida in Afghanistan. We will care for our veterans. We will restore our moral standing in the world.

And we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes, because it is not a tactic to win an election. It is a challenge that should unite America and the world against the common threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate change and poverty, genocide and disease.

All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All of the candidates in this race have good ideas and all are patriots who serve this country honorably.

(APPLAUSE)

But the reason our campaign has always been different, the reason we began this improbable journey almost a year ago is because it's not just about what I will do as president. It is also about what you, the people who love this country, the citizens of the United States of America, can do to change it.

That's what this election is all about.

That's why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers, and the volunteers, and the staff who believed in this journey and rallied so many others to join the cause.

We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember that, no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. And they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come.

We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

(APPLAUSE)

For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we've been told we're not ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.

Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.

And so, tomorrow, as we take the campaign south and west, as we learn that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg are not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas, that the hopes of the little girl who goes to the crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of L.A., we will remember that there is something happening in America, that we are not as divided as our politics suggest, that we are one people, we are one nation.

And, together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story, with three words that will ring from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can.

Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you. Thank you.

2008-10-27T18:11:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama's Closing Arguments

2008-10-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

McCain/Palin's Phony Reform claims vs Palin's "Real America" Nieman Marcus Trips

The bankrupt, drained and empty McCain platform takes another nosedive in the revelation that Sarah Palin's stylist was paid more than McCain's top foreign policy adviser. Contrary to the phony media myth and puffery, John McCain's understanding of foreign policy and his judgment about same pales in comparison to what we need by way of foreign policy. And truth be told, his adviser Randy Scheunemann is pretty off base and very cold war retro. He is part of the problem. And so I am not sure how much his time is worth. But still... where are McCain's priorities?

Amy Strozzi, who works on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance" and has been Palin's traveling stylist, was paid $22,800, according to campaign finance reports for the first two weeks in October. In contrast, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was paid $12,500, the report showed.

Here's the article. By the way, unlike Sarah Palin, who bills the Republican donors for her extravagent shopping sprees, the Obamas pay for their own clothing. Palin's bills included clothes for a two year old, which she doesn't have. Is she buying for the future and billing donors?

2008-10-24T04:45:00.001-07:00

John McCain: Bush, But Worse

My favorite ad--for now. There will certainly be more ads between now and election day.

2008-10-22T05:03:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell on Why He Supports Barack Obama

2008-10-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

More Sarah Palin Idiocy

Earlier in this campaign, Sarah Palin asked, "what does a VP do anyway?" Then she said she wants to expand the role of the Vice President (as if Dick Cheney hasn't done enough of that!). But Sarah Palin still doesn't understand what a Vice President does. Now she thinks she would be in charge of the Senate. She doesn't get that she is a tie breaker. Though the VP sits there at Senate proceedings, he or she is not in charge of the Senate. That would be the majority leader. My, my...

2008-10-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Incompetence and, Worse, Inexcusable Dirty Campaigns on Behalf of Palin and McCain

2008-10-13T18:13:00.001-07:00

GOP Spokespersons Diss John McCain

2008-10-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

A Video All Americans Should See: John McCain Not The Leader We Need

2008-10-13T08:23:00.001-07:00

Hat's Off to Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Winner for Economics

Paul Krugman, the renown Princeton economist, whose Conscience of Liberal sat high on the best seller list last year, and whose on-air commentaries are exemplary and spot-on as commentaries can be, was won the Nobel Prize for Economics. Krugman had achieved nearly everything an academic can. And now, this: His life's work is given the highest worldwide honor. Bravo!

Read about it here. I saw Prof Krugman in person last June (2007) when he presented a talk about the economics of health care. His talk was as timely then as now, for even as I write, John McCain proposes a so-called "health care" plan that will disrupt individuals' ability to even get coverage and lead ultimately to on-your-ownership.

Krugman also often appears on cable news, including Countdown and the new The Rachel Maddow Show. On other cable outlets, he is a fearless debater; a respectful yet strong counterpoint to (failed) fanatical "right-wing" KoolAid drinkers; and the best possible spokesperson for a more enlightened and humane economic policy.

Thanks for all you do, Professor Krugman! You are a hero.

2008-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

The End of Bush's "Ownership" Society: Now It's On-Your-Ownership

All presidents' have encouraged (at least to some extant) home ownership. Some more than others. Some more recklessly than others. None has ushered in policies as dangerous to our economy as has George W. Bush.

Newsweek columnist,Zachary Karabell writes for Newsweek here:

Such a country would be more stable, Bush argued, and more prosperous. "America is a stronger country every single time a family moves into a home of their own," he said in October 2004. To achieve his vision, Bush pushed new policies encouraging home ownership, like the "zero-down-payment initiative," which was much as it sounds—a government-sponsored program that allowed people to get mortgages without a down payment. More exotic mortgages followed, including ones with no monthly payments for the first two years. Other mortgages required no documentation other than the say-so of the borrower. Absurd though these all were, they paled in comparison to the financial innovations that grew out of the mortgages—derivatives built on other derivatives, packaged and repackaged until no one could identify what they contained and how much they were, in fact, worth.

And now we see the result. And as we see it, we also hear absurd claims by McCain campaign and the RNC that Democrats caused this. It's no secret that the Clinton administration hoped to enable more Americans to won homes. As indicated in the article linked above, all US presidents have. However, despite the revisionism of the radical cons, and the McCain campaign, during the Clinton era, people still had to have the financial creditworthiness (as manifested by their net worth and a good credit history) to get a loan. And they still had to report honestly their financial status. Some instruments ushered into the mix During the Bush years, and with the encouragement of the Bush administration, have not required any financial stability on the part of the borrower. And the lunacy of zero down mortgages, which assure that the borrower is even more "upside down" (in this case owing more than the home is worth) than with a down payment speaks for itself. And this, ultimately, has reaped havoc with credit markets now falling from the weight of all the bad debt.

And so, here we are, pending the reopening of the credit markets this week, we still don't know the effect of the European banks (and our own) infusing liquidity into the banking system. We still don't know whether interbank lending and the vital letters of credit needed to move goods around the world will get capital and goods moving again. World trade depends on it. And so does the health of economies all over the world.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163451/page/2

2008-10-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

What We Know About John McCain: And It Ain't Pretty

John McCain has a lot of nerve attaching the word "reformer" to his name. John McCain is the problem. With 177 lobbyists working for his campaign, 83 of them having previously and recently lobbied for Wall Street and the banking Industry, John McCain couldn't be more wrong for this nation's economy-in-crisis. And so he makes stuff up, lies through his teeth about Obama's record, and Obama's proposals (more on these later this week). But John McCain is a fox guarding the hen house. Well, actually he doesn't guard it at all. For John McCain, it's all deregulation, all the time. Thanks to his chief economic advisor, Phil Gramm, we now have a heck of a Wll Street, banking and mortgage crisis. Way to go Johnny and Phil.

2008-10-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

Here's John McCain Not Supporting the Troops

One of the more specious attacks on Barack Obama is the false McCain claim that Barack Obama doesn't support the troops. Indeed a part of a line was lift3ed from an Obama statement on Afghanistan to make it say the absolutely opposite thing than Obama actually said. Even the lame fact-checkers at CBS agreed that this attack was false (Oct. 7, 2008).

And yet, for all the bravado of the McCain campaign about supporting the troops, for all its circumscribing what is "allowed" to be said to the point that any criticism of the war is an "affront" to the troops, McCain does not have much of a track record. Rather, he supports mindless and endless shows of force abroad as a façade for supporting the troops. McCain has (some of this material is paraphrasing Schecter, The Real McCain):

* Opposed Dems 2004 bill to provide more body armor and armored vehicles.
* Opposed the Webb GI Bill for Iraq veterans, and then, when it passed, used the "we" to give the impression that he helped pass it and that he accomplished great things for vets.
* Opposed Akaka (D-HI) S. Amdt 149 to increase medical care by 2.8 billion in 2006.
* In 2006, opposed S. Amdt 1852, which set aside $10 million for readjustment counseling services for troops, despite the evidence that returning soldiers often seriously require such treatments.
* In 2006, again opposed monies for Veterans Medical care. In all these cases, he offered no alternative measures of his own (see Schecter, The Real McCain, p. 35).
* He opposed Dodd's S.Amdt 2735 to shore up failing infrastructure at veterans' hospitals. The bill would have required a minor rollback of the capital gains tax to pay for it.
* He opposed S. Amdt 2737 (Reed-D-RI) which would have provided much needed equipment for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
* He opposed exempting military personnel from some facets of bankruptcy (Durbin-D-Il).
* Using 155 Senate votes affecting troops, veterans, and military families, since Spt. 11, 2001, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found John McCain scored a D. No one got an A. Thirteen Dems got A-. 22/23 Senators getting B+ were Democrats.

Meanwhile,Vet Voice has this summary of McCain's failure to support the troops.

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1973

2008-10-07T14:37:00.000-07:00

POW Fakery: On the Myth that John McCain "Wouldn't Leave VietNam (and Captivity) Until Every Last American Was Released (and other McCain Viet Nam Era Deceptions.

John McCain obstructed families finding out the truth about their family members who never came back. But John McCain continues in his mythology (repeated even by David Letterman just this past month and many "news" outlets.)

And here's where conservatives (as illustrated in the first video) and liberals come together on this subject. The Nation published this story Oct. 6. Read here

Here's another video on a variation of the Viet Nam story:

2008-10-02T05:56:00.001-07:00

Sarah Palin's "Greatest" Hits: The Pathetic, the Outrageous, and the Unqualified

The consensus says that Sarah Palin is the most unqualified candidate for VP in US history. But she's not "just" unqualified. She gushes, exudes, even takes joy in her own failure as a thinking adult. And because beauty queen and small-time news personality Palin just shows up, bats her eyes, smiles her lip-glossed smile--we told she has a chance to prove herself worth of being a heartbeat away from the presidency. John McCain is the oldest candidate ever to run. He's had melanoma at least twice. America has never been in such peril.

The woman doesn't know anything about national issues (except, of course, Roe v. Wade). She pretends she had anything to do with oversight of "20% of the nation's oil supply," over which she does not have oversight. She confuses Iran and Israel. She says Putin has violated her airspace, when he hasn't, according to NORAD. And she says that because Putin is is supposedly "in the air," she is qualified to be VP --or president. She can't name any newspaper she reads or has read--ever read. (Every presidential and vice presidential candidate is asked questions like this.) We have seen what an ignorant sitting President can do to this nation. She doesn't have any idea what the bill before the House Monday and the Senate last night is and loads up her description with talk of health care and more things that the bill does not concern. She simply babbled incoherently. The list goes on. But it is so much worse than not knowing the above. The brain dead way she pastes together empty, unrelated, and disconnected phrases and clauses shows she is incapable of rational thought.

Sarah Palin can do nothing at this point to redeem herself. Even a "passing" performance at the hands of the lickspittle media following tonight's debate cannot change the fact that she is an idiot. They can't pretend that a bar set so low, even if hurdled, means anything. Nor can anything Palin does from here on out erase her miserable, incompetent self from what the world now knows. Sarah Palin is the worst Vice Presidential nominee in history.

The question is: How did Alaskans allow this woman to be governor? But more to the point, how could John McCain care so little about our country to try to impose this poor excuse for a candidate on America. This puts to rest forever any notion that John McCain "puts country first." He doesn't. And no debate "performance" will change that.

Over the past week an increasing cadence of conservatives gets it too: Parker, Will, Krauthammer, Sullivan, Brooks, and more. It all makes one wonder when the free-pass press will finally knock it off with the ridiculous low-bar fetish they have used to get former VP Dan Quayle, Pres. George W. Bush and now, possibly Sarah Palin through the door to the White House. A few courageous journalists have asked tough questions. The rest keep on pretending that if Sarah just stands up, then she "wins." Frankly, this whole process demeans the American voter. And it's time for us to pile scorn on anyone who pretends Sarah Palin can "redeem herself."

Take a look for yourself in "Sarah's Greatest Hits."

2008-09-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

The Appalling Incompetence and Equivocation of John McCain

2008-09-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

RIP: Paul Newman

2008-09-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

Jack Cafferty on the Sarah Palin Idiocy

Finally, National Review columnist Kathleen Parker has said what needed to be said here.

2008-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin--Incompetence on the Economy: Watch it and Bite Fingernails

2008-09-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin is So Not Ready to Be Vice President: The Couric Interview

2008-09-25T04:55:00.000-07:00

A Look Back: John McCain's No "Reformer" (Part One)

As the NY Times revealed this week, John McCain's campaign manager got a check from Freddie Mac until just last month. McCain's campaign is riddled with lobbyists--at least 177 of them, 83 of whom have recently served as lobbyists for Wall St. firms. Some reform! As has been previously noted, Phi, Gramm, chief economic adviser to John McCain, and chief architect of the current crisis (at the last minute he slipped over two hundred pages of deregulation into legislation and gave the Senate no time to read the bill before it came up for a vote). Gramm was also chief architect of the Enron debacle. His effort to inject stealth deregulation mirrored what he did on the Wall St free-for-all bill.

Given John McCain's complicity in the last big banking scandal and bank bailouts, he has amazing gall to peddle the "reformer" label. He's worse than more of the same. Along with Bush, Cheney, Gramm, and a handful of others, John McCain IS the problem.

2008-09-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's Economic Message

2008-09-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

A Look Back to New Hampshire

In coming days, I'll outline the superiority on the issues of Barack Obama. But today I want to post what is an almost lyrical speech from this past winter. The occasion was his loss to Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. This is perhaps the best concession speech I have ever heard. And it tells you much about Barack Obama. The ending, especially, is really worth a listen. No, public speaking isn't everything. And Barack Obama is much more than a great public speaker. But this speech shows part of the depth and breadth the man. It helps to illustrate how a candidate thinks, communicates, relates to others, and responds to setbacks. We see the language chosen, how a candidate frames issues, the extent to which he gets what America needs, the extent to which he tells the truth, and a hint of the unifying power of the candidate.

Later, I'll tackle Barack Obama's stands on the major issues, one by one. I'll talk more about his his statesmanship, steadfastness, accomplishment on important issues, and transformational leadership. There's so much more to this outstanding candidate. For now, take a look.

2008-09-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

John McCain's Social Security Doublespeak (i.e., Lies): Trying to Hoodwink Americans, He Shows He Has No Soul.

Read about it here.

2008-09-03T14:31:00.000-07:00

What Republicans Really Think About the B.S. Selection of Sarah Palin as McSame's Running Mate

2008-09-03T05:44:00.000-07:00

McSame

2008-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's Transcendent Speech

There aren't enough superlatives. Barack Obama nailed it. Hear the speech for yourselves.

2008-08-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

Kathy's Interim Convention Speech and Election Coverage Report Card

[Updates slightly from original post.]
Just for fun, I thought I'd grade some of the speeches thus far. Here goes.

Michelle Obama: A (Simply awesome.)

Hillary Clinton B+ (Would have been at least an A had the first 3/4 been as good as the last five minutes). The last few minutes rocked. But overall Clinton used her characteristically plodding, slow speaking style. That super-slow pace essentially speaks down to us. It feels like we are being lectured. And we can grasp fast talk with more content!)

Mark Warner C- (He was trying too hard to speak to Independents and moderate Republicans and forgot who his audience was. The keynote is supposed to energize the convention, and so Warner wasn't the best pick. He isn't a motivational speaker. He gave as good a speech as he's ever given. But his usual is worse than ordinary. And he is the "wooden" they must have been thinking of when they said Al Gore was "wooden.") Very flat. Zero motivation value. He may have been a reasonably good governor. But a speaker he's not.

Brian Schweitzer: C- (Cocky, condescending, slow.)

Also, just for (not too much) fun, I'll grade MSNBC and CNN for convention coverage:

F- and F, respectively. Every time I look at either station (often throughout the day), they are interviewing a Republican. Whose convention is it anyway? They two stations have been fomenting controversy, focusing on a few dozen rowdy spectators outside their booth, and giving us their tired prattle instead of the actual speeches on the floor. I am so sick of it, I have watched on CSPAN. Just because the GOP lie patrol showed up to crash the Dems party doesn't mean you have to give them a voice. Imagine if the Dems did the same. They'd be trashed by every single station and not given a voice through interviews. And Dick Wadhams as "Minister of Truth"? Oh, puleeze...The media is so unbelievably the GOP lapdog information society that it has lost all credibility.

2008-08-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Tim Kaine's Eyebrow Does The Daily Show

[H/t to RK.]

2008-08-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

John McCain's Revisionism

John McCain has been working to make both the so-called "surge" and the ongoing presence in Iraq the Holy Grail of foreign policy. That's because he doesn't know squat about foreign policy. His rote strategy is to send troops; send more troops; deploy lethal force, even when lethal force isn't required by the situation; and then keep doing it indefinitely. Spend lots of money, enriching GOP-friendly contractors. Bankrupt government so he can drown it in a bathtub. And then claim that because he was a POW no one can call him on it, or any other terrible thing he says, does, or proposes.

But so flawed is John McCain's thinking that even General Petraeus, the vaunted high priest in Iraq, indeed the one McCain claims no one may contradict, disagrees with McCain himself. You can see why McCain tries to set himself up as unquestionable. The man simply can't stand up under the scrutiny.

Read about it here. Indeed Petraus says exactly what Barack Obama has said--that the decrease in violence happened for a number of reasons, including the "Sunni Awakening."

For the record, the so-called awakening is buzzword for being paid to stand down. We paid them for their nonviolence! As in welfare! Imagine the reaction if anyone dared suggest that we pay people in the US to not commit crimes! I am definitely not advocation such a policy. But it is worth considering exactly how outrageous is the position our leaders have boxed us into.

But more than that. It's outrageous that John McCain has the gall to scold Barack Obama, who has been right about the war all along. We shouldn't have ever gone there and most Americans know it. His exit timetable has now been mimicked (albeit with another name--goal) by the Bush administration. However, note the suspicious timing, in time to score election points with voters fed up with the endless war.

Another point of McCain contentiousness (and he is, if anything, contentious) is that redeployment would be "wrong," tantamount to surrender, and lacking consideration of conditions on the ground. But Obama has always included the caveat that our redeployment of troops had to be made in light of conditions on the ground. That's precisely what Petraeus has said, and the Bush administration as well. Of course, they'll give no credit to Obama for having been right. They'll just shamelessly imitate, and continue to scold him for being supposedly "wrong." Oh, yeh, and they'll shamelessly impugn his character and, especially, his patriotism. These guys have got nothing. So they dip into the stench well of stinking, dirty lies.

As for McCain, the man no longer knows the meaning of the truth; protecting our country, or the troops; or the integrity needed to run an honest campaign. Much more on his scurrilous, defamatory ad campaign shortly...

2008-08-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Olbermann Message to John McCain: "Grow Up!"

John McCain may be coming up on 72, may be clouded in his thinking, confused in his grasp of foreign policy, and befuddled while answering questions, but he hasn't grown up.

Here's Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment."

2008-08-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Phil and Wendy Whiner (I Mean Gramm) Are Back At It

Pretend President McCain was only pretending that he let pretend economic and energy fixer, Phil Gramm, go from his inner circle. Here were the scandal-ridden duo (Enron and more), Phil and Wendy Grammm, at the ready to demolish an economy near you.

2008-08-18T09:44:00.001-07:00

All McCain's Mansions

While John McCain's former campaign co-chair complained that America is a nation of whiners, John McCain live the high life: mansions, private jet, high-priced (more than $500 hundred dollar a pair) designer shoes. Take a look. BTW, Phil Gramm is back.

2008-08-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Behind the Smears Against Barack Obama

Check this out:

2008-08-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

Even Rick Davis Admits that Mc=W3

2008-08-10T07:50:00.000-07:00

McCain New Attack Ad Lies

Here are two refutations of the contemptible lies in the newest ad. First, here's a Newsweek article by factcheck.org. And then there's this from the Obama campaign:

2008-08-08T14:09:00.000-07:00

McCain's Fog

2008-08-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Rad-Cons Go After U.S. Rep. Wexler, American Hero

Someone has to stand up for our Constitution and rule of law. Funny how all the "law-and-order" folks aren't so big on law-and-order now.

Here's a message from Robert Wexler:

Dear ______,

I need your help:

My strong and vocal stands in favor of impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney have made me a target. I am now under siege by the right wing, who are working hard to defeat me and silence the causes that we believe in.

In the eyes of the right wing, I am seen, along with Rep. Kucinich, as one of the symbols of the impeachment fight. They believe that if they defeat me – they defeat our cause.

For the last week, I’ve been relentlessly targeted by ultra-conservative radio and television hosts, as well as my local media. It has taken a toll. Now more than ever, I need your support to help me stay in Congress to represent your voice in Washington.

Please click here to donate to my re-election campaign.

I am pleased to report that just this week we have made real progress in our fight for accountability for this rogue Administration. Just yesterday a federal court ruled against President Bush's bogus executive privilege claims and ordered Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten to testify. In addition, this week the Judiciary Committee voted to hold Karl Rove in contempt for his refusal to testify.

I will make you this promise: No matter who criticizes me, I will continue to aggressively push for genuine accountability for this White House – including inherent contempt for Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Harriet Miers and all of the renegade Bush officials if they do not immediately cooperate.

With your contribution today (click here) you can ensure that I will return to Congress and never back down from the causes in which we believe.

I have been one of the few lonely voices in Congress to demand accountability and now I am paying a price. The truth is I would rather lose my election than back down. But we will win if we stand together, and your contribution today will send a strong message to the right wing that our movement will not be intimidated.

Click here to donate and help me send a message to the right wing.

It’s no coincidence that these attacks are increasing as I continue my outspoken stances, and Election Day approaches.

Right now, I am facing my most difficult re-election ever. While I rely on people like you to support my campaign – both of my wealthy opponents are spending their own personal money to fund their campaigns. One opponent has promised to spend a million dollars to defeat me. Another opponent has ridiculed my stance on impeachment and called for me to be impeached and removed from office.

I need your help: please click here to donate today.

From the beginning of my work on impeachment, I have been dipping into my re-election fund to help pay the significant costs of what has been a national campaign to promote impeachment. Some of you have previously donated to help keep this outreach alive, and for that, I’m thankful. I will continue to promote this cause using my campaign resources.

Now, the right wing is fueling the campaigns against me: Newspapers are reporting that my Republican opponent is seeing a major spike in contributions. We must match his supporters dollar for dollar.

If you're in a position to contribute, please help us win this race (click here to donate).

If not, but you know someone who might want to, please spread the word by forwarding this email and posting it on blogs.

Every two years, Americans get to decide who represents them. Whether I'm your representative or not, I hope you know I will continue to fight to protect our Constitution.

Regardless of whether you can support me financially at this time or not, please know that I have been inspired by your hard work, words of encouragement, and unflagging commitment for our shared causes.

Your friend,

Congressman Robert Wexler

DONATE

P.S. If you prefer to donate via mail, please send a check to:

Wexler For Congress Campaign
2500 North Military Trail
Suite 251
Boca Raton, FL 33431

P.P.S.: If you spend a minute watching this short video on the outspoken stands I have taken, you will see why the right wing wants to defeat me. (If it does not show below, you may view it at http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/multimedia.asp?ItemID=263.)

2008-08-07T08:51:00.001-07:00

McCain Cannot Be Trusted: Video Rendering of the Many McCain Reversals, Flip Flops and Deceptions

This video from Keith Olbermann's Countdown needs re-airing. While the media collectively use the McCain frame and the McCain trivialization and mockery against our candidate, the record shows, McCain needs much closer scrutiny. His supposed "record" isn't what it seems.

2008-08-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

John McCain's Recipe for a Police State

Steve Benen at Thecarpetbagger report has an excellent article up here

Essentailly, Benen asserts, "if you've got a problem, John McCain's got a surge" for you. McCain now thinks that since he knows so much about how to "win wars," that he can apply it to everything else. For example,

ABC News’ David Wright reports: Answering a question at the Urban League about his approach to combating crime, John McCain suggested that military strategies currently employed by US troops in Iraq could be applied to high crime neighborhoods here in the US.

Yeh, that's just what we need back hone. Not that it was needed in Iraq either. They didn't have WMD,. remember. Iraq hadn't really threatened us, remember. That's little comfort concerning the US legacy in Iraq. But imagine bringing house-to-house combat to a neighborhood near you. Barricade the doors. John McCain is coming!

2008-07-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

The "Comander-in-Chief Test"

[Hat tip to Rob at RK.]