<![CDATA[I'm astonished that Senator McCain has to sit by his vice presidential candidate to defend her statements, blaming the press for Governor Palin's clearly stated position about Pakistan, a contradiction to what McCain said in the debate Friday. McCain calls a question by a voter a "gotcha journalism" tactic.
Palin's position, that cross-border strikes are necessary, is exactly what McCain condemned as naive and dangerous. Either she’s naive and dangerous or McCain’s characterization of Senator Obama is mere posturing.
We get to decide. Do you want these people running the country?]]>
Month: September 2008
<![CDATA[James K. Galbraith writes in the Washington Post, arguing that, with all the big investment banks gone already, the best move is to fund the FDIC to cover all deposits and just be done with it. Then, take steps to shore up local governments.
It's a thoughtful alternative to buying bad paper. Read, think.]]>
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The runaway candidate
<![CDATA[Now he’s out of the race. McCain should continue the debates, regardless of what he wants to spend his days doing. It is essential to our democracy that we hear from the candidates about all the issues.
If Senator McCain wants to suspend his campaign, he should drop out of the race and let someone who wants to answer to the American people run in his place. That would rule out Sarah Palin as a presidential candidate, as well.]]>
<![CDATA[It may be needed, but the bail-out shouldn't come in the form of a give-away to the banks, Congress says.
This is when the vaunted “bipartisanship” Republicans demand at every turn actually becomes a real debate and negotiation. In this case, the only people in favor of the bail-out in its current form are the Bushies. This is why we need a strong Congress, not a unitary executive.]]>
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A broken home
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Recovery or double-dip?
<![CDATA[When the banking crisis is completely wrapped up, several years from now, we are going to be looking at another trillion dollars in U.S. debt, at least. That’s money coming out of everyone’s pockets to pay for the losses generated by a very small, very rich group of people. I do think it is high time the U.S. government step in, but we would not have gotten to this point if the Bush administration and Republican economic policy over the past 28 years hadn’t drastically reduced the government’s oversight of markets. Earlier, the energy markets proved this, but the Republicans pushed on with deregulation, a la Glass-Steagall, which set the stage for this banking meltdown.
The cost of intelligent regulation is far lower than the social insurance for billionaires we’re paying today. President Bush and his supporters, including Senator McCain, despite his howling and growling about the markets as “casinos” during the past couple days (not to mention his idea that we need yet another U.S. agency to handle this crisis—the essence of short-term thinking), should acknowledge that they got us into this and that they are borrowing on our children’s futures to get their rich friends out of it.
We’re at a point where capitalism is only a seeming capitalism, like the communism of the Soviet Union, where the rich get all the benefits of shared risk, while the rest of us simply go back to work to pay off their debts.
If this were a real marketplace under the rule of law, lots of bankers would be led out in handcuffs and the perpetrators of these financial disasters would be broke and begging on the street, just as they’ve said “economic failures” need to do all these years. Let’s see these fatcats bootstrap their existence for a change.]]>
<![CDATA[Senator John McCain has promised to "fix" healthcare with a system that combines tax credits with increased emphasis on private insurance. One of his advisors, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, says the plan would pull 25 to 30 million people into the ranks of the insured. Yes, more private insurers making big profits is exactly what we need…. But a panel of experts has contradicted the McCain claims in an article in Health Affairs, according to The New York Times:
The article, published in the journal Health Affairs, argues that “initially there would be no real change in the number of people covered as a result of the McCain plan.” After a short-term reduction of 1 million in the number of people without coverage, the number of uninsured would increase by 5 million after five years, the authors predict. There are currently 45 million people without insurance, or 15 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau.
If McCain would like to convene a panel of experts to determine what’s wrong with the U.S. financial system (as though we don’t know already–unrestricted greed has sapped the system of tremendous reserviors of value), he ought to listen to this pane about health care now. The McCain health plan is more of the same, which will only magnify the problem.
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This makes me sick…
<![CDATA[In the comments at ABCNews.com, about the Palin interview, the following
“from all the anti Palin post, I gather that the Liberal Extremist (Democrats) are still full of hate and anti American attitudes. If you don’t love American and all this country provides you(security, freedom etc.) leave, go away. There are countries out there that are full of hate and never protect their freedom and security, that would love to have you.
moralityusa 9:27 PM”
It is sickening. That is ugly, unamerican and misrepresents the majority of Americans and Republicans. But it is increasingly the message being sent by the far right. We’ve moved from talk of liberal extremists to lumping all Democrats into a category that should leave the country. When I refer to members of the far right, I mean people who want to legislate the way we live, not someone who should leave the country. With this kind of rhetoric, they should not be honored with elective office. And we should mark that this is the language of the Palin proponents, who are resorting to rabid attack on any honest effort to ask her a question.
Voters have every right to ask Gov. Palin any question as they judge her ability to make decisions that will impact every American. Anyone who thinks the McCain campaign’s strategy of insulating her from the press is correct is missing the point of democracy: Elections are a test. When you win, you don’t get to take over and run the country, you get to lead the government. If this kind of hateful response from moralityusa is what can be expected in response to our questions about Sarah Palin, the election is a fight for the American future.
Doors to avenues of thought and freedom of opportunity are closing all around us. We have to kick them open by voting against this kind of closed-minded hatred of other Americans and everything that makes this country great.]]>