Quadsville

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/23/cheney-linked-to-stevens-corruption-trial

---Does anyone think this is just coincidence? Shades of Agnew, here.

I'd say this requires an independent prosecutor, if not an immediate congressional investigation. 

It is long past time for people to start looking at the many major overriding issues with McCain and his campaign, (which would be fatal for a Democrat). These should be spread far and wide.

In 2000, the nation elected bush without taking a close look at his background, behaviors, or past decisions and actions. Despite being covered up by the gop conress and WH, as the incompetence and consequences of that action became ever more clear, people fled their decision in droves. Today, there are very few who can claim that they, or the country, are better off than they were 4, much less 8 years ago. Hopefully, the American electorate will consider their options more carefully, this time.

 As CNN's Jack Cafferty recently noted:

I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.

George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.

He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.

I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.

John McCain is unelectable. The American public just doesn’t fully know it yet.

--"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

McCAIN’S PLAN FOR FUEL EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION

McCAIN’S SOLUTION TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY “CRISIS” 

 President McCylon?  DO NOT WANT!

His complaints about Obama's "elitism"

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bushpromise to Georgia....Pentagon officials told McClatchy that they were increasingly dubious that any U.S. Navy vessels would join the aid operation, in large part because the U.S.-based hospital ships likely to go, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy, would take weeks to arrive.

“The president was writing checks to the Georgians without knowing what he had in the bank,” said a senior administration official.

“The president got out in front of the planning when he talked publicly about using naval forces,” said a second senior administration official. “At that point we need to look at treaty obligations, our bilateral relations with the Turks and others, waterway restrictions and what kind of ships might be appropriate and usable

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McCain: "I support the president's policies 95% of the time..." 

Squeezed by medical costs: In 2007, only 34% of families had enough money to cover the cost of a medical emergency, down from 43.7% in 2000.  The share of private sector workers with employer-sponsored health insurance dropped from 64% in 2000 to 60% in 2006, while the costs associated with medical care increased 35% from March 2001 to July 2008.

_______________ 

Presently, your wages are subject to income tax, but your health-benefits are not.

McCain wants to change this and start subjecting your health-care benefits to taxation.

Basically, McCain wants to quit giving your employer the tax break allowed for providing you health-insurance. (Which will cause them to quit providing you health insurance). 

Instead, he wants everyone to buy their own insurance and provide "tax credits" for doing so. $2500/yr for a single. $5000/yr for a family.

(Since the annual Cobra costs for (a healthy) single-person policy runs about $6000/yr....I don't think this is much of a "solution.") 

      “is a transformation of the tradition of a tax subsidy to     private insurance to make sure that subsidy is fair, both in     the sense that it is available to every American regardless of     the source of their private insurance and that every person     gets the same amount — $5,000 for a family, $2,500 for an     individual.”

        Actually, considered as a whole, McCain’s plan will raise     taxes on millions of workers for two reasons. First, his plan     would tax workers’ health benefits, which are largely     tax-free today. Although he also creates a new tax credit     for insurance premiums, many workers will pay more in     taxes on their insurance then they get from the new credit.

    Second, the value of McCain’s credit will erode quickly.     While health care premiums are expected to grow by 7     percent a year, McCain’s credit will increase by only about     2 percent a year. In contrast, current tax benefits keep up     with rising premiums.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/08/14/mccain%E2%80%99s-plan-to-tax-health-insurance/ 

Should the oh-so-successful deregulated approach to wallstreet/banking/mortgages/credit-card co's be applied to your health-care? 

What say you? 

Something to keep in mind:

"....nearly 90 percent of people seeking coverage in the individual market “never end up buying a plan, finding it either very difficult or impossible to find one that met their needs or is affordable.” From a recent Commonwealth study:

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/08/15/baby-cecilia/ 

Further, the average american family spends $3200 (after-taxes)/yr on gas......up from 1100/yr when Clinton left office. 

[mccain's  vs. obama's Tax Plans]:

Or, put another way; "who gets the tax-cuts": 

Income gains over last 25 yrs: 

Also bear in mind: 

– McCain wants “everything on the table” to fix social security, but says any slight tax increases on the rich are “out of the question.”

– McCain’s health care plan is either a budget busting expenditure or a tax hike on the middle class, but his campaign insists it’s neither.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/08/15/holtz-eakin-cavuto-begging/

Two-Thirds of Corporations Pay No Taxes, But McCain Still Wants To Lower the Corporate Tax Rate 

Even worse, imo, is mccain's plans to: 

--give the 5 biggest oil companies in the U.S. a $4 billion per-year tax break,

--to big retailers ($1.4 billion a year for Wal-Mart alone),

--big banks ($1.3 billion a year for Bank of America alone),

--you name the big corporation, McCain wants to give them a huge tax cut.

Altogether, McCain’s tax plan would give $175 billion per year in tax breaks to corporations, including $45 billion a year to the top 200 corporations alone.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/26/fortune-200-report/ 

The following table shows the tax savings to America’s five largest firms. See a full list of all 200 companies and their savings under McCain here:

These giveaways are just one part of McCain’s doubling of the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy which would create the largest deficits in 25 years and drive the United States into the deepest deficits since World War II.

http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/26/fortune-200-report/ 

---mccain has yet to, even once, provide detailed explanations of his fiscal policies. Obama's provided extensive, economist-peer-reviewed plans.

I wonder "why" that is....? 

Once again, the gop's presidential candidate is promising more voodoo economics......even moreso than bush's taxcuts.

After taking it in the shorts for the last  8  yrs, I guess we'll see if the American electorate's learned anything..... 

The number of brand-name drugs with increases of 100% or more could double this year from four years ago, researchers from the University of Minnesota say. Many of the drugs are older products that treat fairly rare, but often serious or even life-threatening, conditions.

(examples: Questcor Pharmaceuticals last August raised the wholesale price on Acthar, which treats spasms in babies, from about $1,650 a vial to more than $23,000.

Ovation raised the cost of Cosmegen, which treats a type of tumor, from $16.79 to $593.75 in January 2006.)

The average wholesale price of 26 brand-name drugs jumped 100% or more in a single cost adjustment last year, up from 15 in 2004, the university study found. In the first half of this year, 17 drugs made the list.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2008-08-07-costlydrugs_N.htm

--Pretty steep hikes on drugs for which all the research and (presumably) all the advertising and doctor-buying has been done. 

"It is not a "free market" when producers can arbitrarily push through price increases at will for products people need to survive, and nothing can be done to stop them. Where is the pressure to lower prices?

By some bizarre logic, we are expected to accept the "workings of capitalism" when companies raise prices by 100 percent, and we are supposed to object to our government acting to bring prices down by increasing competition. "

http://www.umbc.edu/blogs/changingaging/2008/08/tell_me_why.html 

--We are expected to accept those workings because PHARMA has a huge majority of Congress on the payroll. It's pretty hard to start containing health care costs for Medicare and Medicaid when the very people who are supposed to be grappling with the issue are receiving huge campaign donations from the source of the problem.

When it comes time for any real reform on health care (and I hope that time arrives shortly after January 20, 2009), BIG PHARMA and all of its members and cohorts should be the first targets.

The John McCain Health Plan

If it wasn't such a serious problem, this would be more hilarious. McCain's plan for the crisis in rural health care: send in celebrity athletes to inspire kids to lose weight and adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having Shaq inspire kids to be healthy, but what rural residents need right now is more health care providers. That doesn't seem to be mentioned in McCain's overall strategy. Indeed, it doesn't seem that McCain has much of a strategy at all outside of letting Shaq handle it.

Two weeks ago, another gunman walked into a liberal Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, Tennessee, and began shooting, killing one man and wounding several others before he was tackled. He had written a manifesto before the rampage indicating his belief that "all liberals should be killed." At his home, investigators found books attacking liberals by the likes of Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, and ... Bill O'Reilly.

Just par for the course, for rightwing pundits. This "Eliminationist" rhetoric can be broken down into 5 parts.

Part 1: Expressing a desire or a demand for extermination, removal, or infliction of harm

Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus -- living fossils -- so we will never forget what these people stood for."

Stop the ACLU [post since removed]:

Rope + Tree + ACLU Lawyer = Pinata

Ann Coulter: "I think our motto should be, post-9-11: 'Rag*ead talks tough, rag*ead faces consequences.'"

Ann Coulter: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. ... That's just a joke, for you in the media."

"This free speech thing is a canard. ... How about not letting traitors teach at universities? Yes, I realize I've just proposed firing the entire Harvard faculty. These institutions can be shaken -- look at Dan Rather. He's out. Or, as I look at it, one down, two to go. We're going to need a much bigger trophy case for all these stuffed heads."

"Some liberals have become even too crazy for Texas to execute, which is a damn shame. They're always saying -- we're oppressed, we're oppressed so let's do it. Let's oppress them."

Rush Limbaugh:

[Quoting from an AP report] "Aljazeera has broadcasted an insurgent video today, shows four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq, with a previously unknown group claiming responsibility for the kidnappings. The unknown group is the Swords of Righteousness Brigade, and they said the four were spies working undercover as Christian peace activists, according to Aljazeera. Aljazeera said that it could not verify any of the information on the tape. The aid group Christian Peacemaker Teams has confirmed that four of its members were taken hostage on Saturday...."

[P]art of me that likes this. And some of you might say, "Rush, that's horrible. Peace activists taken hostage." Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality. So here we have these peace activists over there. I don't care if they're Christian or not.

[...]

Yeah, as warped as these people are, you know they're going to blame Bush for this... They wouldn't have been kidnapped because they wouldn't have been there in the first place if Bush hadn't gone and caused the war and created all these terrorists. I mean, these people are liberals, they're warped. Well, I mean, that's why there's -- I'm telling you, folks, there's a part of me that likes this. Probably, even with this, though, you know, they're not going to see the light of day. They're not going to -- I know, let them take me out of context. I don't care anymore.

Melanie Morgan: "I would have no problem with [New York Times editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber."

Melanie Morgan: "A great deal of good could be done by arresting Bill Keller having him lined up against the wall and shot."

Lee Rogers: "[T]he day will come when unpleasant things are going to happen to a bunch of stupid liberals and it's going to be very amusing to watch."

"The Political Insight":

Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?

Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous -- grab for the golden ring.

RedState contributor "Thomas Crown":

I repeat: Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell.

Ann Coulter:

LINDA VESTER (host): You say you'd rather not talk to liberals at all?

COULTER: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.

Bill O'Reilly

Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

Dean Franks:

I'll make a deal with the Left: You wanna impeach President Bush? Go ahead. Knock yourself out. In fact, let's just go to the polls and turn the whole government over to the Democrats. You wanna run the whole show? Fine. Elect Howard Dean President. End all surveillance against possible enemy combatants, unless you can get a warrant based on probable cause. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. Permanently kill the PATRIOT Act. Do whatever you want to do. I'm perfectly willing, at this point, to do it your way.

I mean, really, what's the worst that can happen? An American city goes up in nuclear fire? Well, it’ll probably be New York, Chicago, or LA. You know, a major city. I don't live there, nor do most Americans. So we'll be fine.

But here's the other half of the deal: If that happens, we get to march on Washington, drag you naked and screaming from your offices, and hang you from the ornate lampposts that line The Mall. Then, free from roadblocks thrown up by infantile political fools, maybe we'll get serious about defending the United States, her people, her freedoms, and her values, in an increasingly hostile world.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin:

I am absolutely convinced that God is far from finished with the story of the United States of America. ... First of all, [there's] the matter of the little battle that must be fought, just as it was in the 19th century." There were, and are, "two incompatible moral visions for this country. We had to settle it then. We're going to have to settle it now. I hope not with blood, not with guns, but we're going to have to settle it nonetheless. The good news is that I think our side is finally ready to settle it. Roll up its sleeves, take off its jacket, and get a little bloody. Spill a little blood. We'll settle it. And we'll win. And then there's no holding us back.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.:

While praising the efforts of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gibbons accused liberals, movie stars and song makers of "trying to divide this country."

"I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else," he told the crowd, according to the Elko Daily Free Press.

He then said it was "too damn bad we didn't buy them a ticket" to become human shields in Iraq.

His comments came a week after he apologized for calling those who oppose corporate donations for President Bush's inaugural parties "communists."

Ann Coulter:

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too."

"They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America’s self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn’t slowed them down."

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

"God said ... rape the planet -- it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and striping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars -- that's the Biblical view."

"I have to say I'm all for public flogging."

"I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote."

"Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."

"My libertarian friends are probably getting a little upset now but I think that's because they never appreciate the benefits of local fascism."

"In this recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he [Clinton] 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."

Daniel Kish, a senior adviser to Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., in an email:

"Connecticut should have its statehood taken away from it. The foolishness of its pampered residents should be demonstrated to others by a government program to bulldoze the entire state, salt the land and construct a windfarm to supply NYC with electricity. And its residents should be relocated to Guantanamo Bay where they can take a number behind the 3 who hung themselves this weekend, since they seem so intent on suicide."


Rep. Peter King:

And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.

Bill O'Reilly:

Where does George Soros have all his money? Do you know? Do you know where George Soros, the big left-wing loon who's financing all these smear [web]sites, do you know where his money is? Curaçao. Curaçao. They ought to hang this Soros guy.

Imagine there was a website titled ConservativesMustDie.com”. It would be considered vulgar, crude and threatening.

In fact Homeland Stupidity might even think it is terroristic. But it is OK for republicans, Malkin, Rushbo, BillO, and so on to continue having and preaching their violent fantasies.

Yet another reason a gop'er should not be elected to the WH:  the WH appoints the administrators for the FCC.

It's not a given that Republican candidate has the right stuff

"Russian tanks roared deep into Georgia(n territory) on Monday, launching a new western front in the conflict, and Russian planes staged air raids that sent people screaming and fleeing for cover in some towns.

The escalating warfare brought sharp words from President Bush, who pressed Moscow to accept an immediate cease-fire and pull its troops out to avert a "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence in the former Soviet republic.

"Of course, Saddam Hussein ought to have been hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said in Moscow. "And the incumbent Georgian leaders who razed ten Ossetian villages at once, who ran elderly people and children with tanks, who burned civilian alive in their sheds — these leaders must be taken under protection."

 

Pentagon officials said...(the) U.S. military was assessing the fighting every day to determine whether to pull the fewer than 100 remaining American trainers out of the country."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_south_ossetia

  "Georgians appear to be displeased at the lack of a more forceful American response. This, as much as anything, gives an indication as to what Georgia thought it was buying with its Iraq deployment:

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-blather-about-georgia.html 

If this is true, whoever is responsible should be banned from foreign policy for the rest of his or her natural life:

"Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closest ally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said to have given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia in the believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours." 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2529986/Georgia-conflict-Screams-of-the-injured-rise-from-residential-streets.html 

"Bush pressed the other NATO powers to place Georgia's application for membership on the fast track. The Europeans rejected the idea, understanding the geo-strategic implications of pushing NATO's boundaries right up to Russia's border. If the Europeans had let Bush have his way, we would now be obligated by treaty to send troops in Georgia's defense. That is to say, we would now be in a shooting war with the Russians. Those who might oppose entering such a war would be accused of "weakening our credibility" and "destroying the unity of the Western alliance."

(The same question can be asked of the Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly called Saakashvili on Sunday to assure him that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered." We should all be interested to know what answer he is preparing or whether he was just dangling the Georgians on another few inches of string.)"

---McCain also contributed towards this Georgian mindset with his calling for them to be admitted to NATO. He's now saying this would have deterred the Russians from counter-attacking, after the Georgians invaded S. Ossetia.

"McCain's claim that MembershipApplicationProcess for Georgia would have deterred the Russians constitutes what I see as a troubling misunderstanding of how promises of western support influenced Saakashvili's calculations--and created false hopes for the Georgians."

http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2008/08/quick-note-on-georgia-russia.html