America, inc.

How the gop caused the economic crash

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:16:36 GMT

BECAUSE this mess has happened on the REPUBLICANS' watch they are going into massive spin mode. While their stories are easily dismissed by facts, their rationalizations are still getting into mainstream political dialog.

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The gop claims "DEREGULATION" has NOTHING to do with the current problems in the market. The REAL culprit is the Community Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Carter and later modified (by a gop congress, and signed) by President Clinton.

(The laughable gop "minorities economically stabbed us in the back" meme).
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GOP: "That the Community Reinvestment Act caused financial institutions to lend to people who weren't credit worthy."

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YjgwYzI4Njg3OWMxOGUzYmY0ZDMwYzYwNzkzYjc1NDI

This is crap: --The CRA was signed into law in 1977....over 20 years before the current crisis.

GOP: "wait -- Clinton changed the law; that was the real problem".

No it wasn't. Regarding those changes:

--In the mid-1990s, new CRA regulations and a wave of mergers led to a flurry of CRA activity, but, as noted by the New America Foundation's Ellen Seidman (and by Harvard's Joint Center), that activity largely came to an end by 2001.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=did_liberals_cause_the_subprime_crisis

Further, the CRA only applies to banks and thrifts.

Most of the mortgage lending during the last boom came from....mortgage lenders who AREN'T regulated by CRA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act#cite_ref-7

GOP: "the democratic MINORITY in the house/senate in 2005 did not put Fannie and Freddie under a new super-regulator; that caused the problem."

-Wrong: the CRA had nothing to do with the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac either.

The problem was this gop administration was notoriously lax with ANY and ALL regulatory oversight.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB121884860106946277.html

In fact, BUSH and his Fed govn greenspan killed reform attempted by congress in 2005:

Former Ohio-Congressman Michael Oxley(gop) got the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act passed in the gop-controlled House. (It would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, limited their portfolios and dealt with the possibility of receivership).

It failed passage in the gop-controlled Senate.

Oxley: “We missed a golden opportunity that would have avoided a lot of the problems we’re facing now, if we hadn’t had such a firm ideological position at the White House and the Treasury and the Fed. We got a one-finger salute...from the White House.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8780c35e-7e91-11dd-b1af-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

Finally, BUSH's SEC chairman (a longtime deregulation proponent) finally conceded last Fri (26Sept) that bush's oversight-flaws fueled collapse; that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.

(Wow. I mean, Who.Could.of.Knowed ?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/business/27sec.html

Recall that bush, for years had quashed ALL state-attempts to reign in predatory lenders and high-risk mortgages, through state-level consumer protection statutes, by claiming that Federal oversight took precedence over state regulations (even though the Federal regulations were WEAKER than the states).

And don't forget, ALL of the oversight and regulation that greenspan CHOSE not to enforce (because he felt it 'wasn't the Fed's responsibility), was FINALLY implemented by the new Fed Govn Bernanke.....unfortunately, AFTER the subprime collapse triggered the implosion of wallstreets 17-60 x's "leveraged" borrowing/CDS based upon mortgage-related securities.

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A simple Google search with help from Wikipedia would have revealed how clueless the CRA caused this mess claim is. THAT's not the point. The entire financial system is under tremendous stress on the Republican's watch. It's their policies that are currently under the microscope and they just don't look that good. So now their political GAME is to SHIFT the blame...and who better to blame than....the democrats!

See, it's the *democrats* fault that:

-BUSH REFUSED all REGULATION and OVERSIGHT for the last 7 1/2 YEARS.

-That BUSH's Fed govn greenspan REFUSED all OVERSIGHT and REGULATION of the spiraling housing bubble HIS interest-rate cuts CAUSED.

-That MCCAIN'S main economic advisor GRAMM snuck his "Commodities-Futures-Regulation-Act" into a massive 17000-page, must-pass spending bill back in 2000: which ACTUALLY DEREGULATED the "credit-default-swap" markets. In the last 8 short years, these CDS markets skyrocketed from $1-Trillion to $60-TRILLION...and are THE MAIN cause of the current financial meltdown and $700-Billion taxpayer bailout of wallstreet.

Neat trick, that.

Some viral videos about mccain:

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:05:40 GMT

McCain Debates Himself on Supporting Bush:

The Jed Report decided to use the easily-digitally-manipulated green background for a more serious endeavor: to showcase McCain contradicting himself when it comes to his ties to George W. Bush.

John McCain's Health Records Must Be Released:

Robert Greenwald believes that "the state of John McCain's health is an issue of grave concern for all Americans, regardless of political persuasion."

McCain has not released his medical records, though he did allow a few select reporters to look them over for three hours in May. That's not enough for Greenwald, who asks, "Why the secrecy?"

Why I'm Voting Republican:

A funny but poignant "get out the vote" video. Don't be fooled by the title; this short video isn't trying to encourage anyone to turn in their ballots for the gop.

P.A.N.T.H.E.R.s for Palin:

A new group of women voters, "P.U.M.A.s are for Hillary, Cougars bang young dudes, but a P.A.N.T.H.E.R is for Palin." Watch the video to learn the P.A.N.T.H.E.R. pounce.

Things recently been different, but many thought the mainstream media were being too soft on John McCain. A Brave New Films' video of McCain's inaccuracies helped hold McCain accountable when the media wouldn't.

Possibly THE most sobering video about a McCain presidency (or god forbid, a palin one).

This web video is a dead-serious attack on what some worry is McCain's first option rather than his final.

Cheney linked to Stevens corruption trial.

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:28:08 GMT

Newsweek reports that in a conversation “secretly tape-recorded by the FBI on June 25, 2006,” Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) “discussed ways to get a pipeline bill through the Alaska Legislature with Bill Allen, an oil-services executive accused of providing the senator with about $250,000 in undisclosed financial benefits.” Stevens promised Allen, “I’m gonna try to see if I can get some bigwigs from back here and say, ‘Look … you gotta get this done’.” Two days later, Vice President Cheney undertook the unusual move of writing a letter to the Alaska Legislature urging members to “promptly enact” a bill to build the pipeline.

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.

Your Speakers Guide to the Republican Convention (Funny!)

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:06:33 GMT

Seating still available in the Larry Craig Pavillion

Plan accordingly:

Full schedule below.

Monday 9/1:
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. (Quisling)
Vice President Dick Cheney (War criminal, eats babies, shoots friends just to watch them die)

Monday primetime (10-11pm Eastern Time)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif. (Groper)
President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush (Drunk/enabler or enabler/drunk. Choose one. Or both.)

Tuesday 9/2:
Fmr. Gov. Tom Ridge, R-Pa. (Boring. Will bring color flip charts to liven things up)
Former CA Secretary of State Rosario Marin (Ethnic ...I'm from California, never heard of her)
Fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. (Geezer - to speak during early-bird GOP dinner. Menu: creamed corn and... more creamed corn)
Gov. Linda Lingle, R-Hawaii (Exotic Ethnic)
Fmr. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, R-Md. (Really Ethnic)

Tuesday primetime (10-11pm Eastern Time)
Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska (MILF)
Fmr. Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark. (Godsmacked Yokel)
Fmr. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-New York City ***KEYNOTER*** (911!911!911!911!911!)

Wednesday 9/3:
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.(Sent wife to California to be an "actress" so he could stay home and boink other women)
Meg Whitman, Ebay CEO (Beanie baby entrepreneur enabler)
Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO (HP EPIC FAIL)
Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. (Magic Underwear Cultist)

Wednesday primetime (10-11pm Eastern Time)
Cindy McCain (Tweaker. Probably the person who stole your car stereo in the early nineties)
Vice Presidential nominee (TBA. If they keep 91 year-old John McCain in the wings too long, could be the default nominee)
Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., will speak after the VP nominee (Ethnic/exorcist/nine years old)

Thursday 9/4:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn. (Really really non-ethnic. Makes Casper the Friendly Ghost look like Seal)
Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla. (Gay)
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas (Crazy. Dyes his hair, so... gay)
Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla (Not Mexican but still muy Ethnic)

Thursday primetime (10-11pm Eastern Time)
Sen. John McCain (video before his speech) - (If he is still awake. Otherwise run The Deerhunter as true life biographical film as he remembers it from when he was A PRISONER OF WAR)

After party until 11:18 unless candidate falls asleep.

After after party: Orgy at Norm Coleman's. BYOKY.

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/08/20/your-speakers-guide-to-the-republican-convention/

***I was cracking up by the time he reached the second day. What say you?

(btw, more of his unique humor at the website. Check it out).

McCain's Electability Problems

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:27:44 GMT

Mccain is disliked by his own party.

Even though mccain clinched the republican primary on March 4, had an incredibly low amount of votes in the primaries, both before and (here is the kicker) AFTER he already clinched. (for example, he only won one of the twelve caucuses, topped 55% of the primary vote only once (DC) before clinching the nomination and even after clinching the nomination only broke 80% of the vote two times in 10 primary contests.) Hardly a vote of confidence from his own party – a party that is as unpopular as any political party has been in my lifetime.

Mccain has angered an entire hugely-motivated section of the republican party – the fundies, (only to finally flirt with an extremist pastor (Hagee) and then be forced to denounce him after pressure to do so, therefore alienating this portion of the base further.)

Mccain has broken his own campaign finance laws - benefiting from them in the primaries when he had no support or money (yet denying that he ever “really” opted into the public financing.) Some “straight talk: there.

Mccain is supposedly running on “foreign policy experience”, yet has made mistake after mistake after mistake when it comes to basic foreign policy matters.

Mccain is running as a (supposed) “straight talker,” yet has lied so many times that even the WaPo, Joe Klein and Andrea Mitchell have called him on his lies.

Mccain touts his military experience (which roughly consisted of screwing around, losing 5 planes and being a POW close to 40 years ago), yet his voting record when it comes to the troops and veterans is nothing short of abysmal and thinks it isn’t too important when the troops will come home from Iraq.

Mccain is not only against a woman’s right to make personal private medical decisions, but would appoint SCOTUS Justices that would eliminate right to privacy.

Though mccain's age is off limits, over 40% of people polled last year would be hesitant to vote for a 72 year old to be President (and that was before he bumbled and stumbled his way through a few weeks of campaigning - clearly looking like he is in way over his head).

Mccain has further made jokes about being raped and joked about Chelsea Clinton being ugly (because Janet Reno was her father) when Chelsea was just 18 years old .

(We'll leave out that mccain's wife stole painkillers from a veteran’s charity that she headed up. And that mccain politically went after the whistleblower who exposed it.)

(As well as mccain's leaving his first wife when she was disfigured in a horrific accident (after she waited for him for years to return from Vietnam).

Mccain is running the dirtiest and most desperate campaigns in modern history – and still has the corporate media as his lapdog despite totally blowing off members of the press or asking ever-diplomatic questions like: “what do you want, you little jerks? to members of the press.

Mccain's idea of diplomacy is to sing about bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran, to stay in Iraq for 100 years, on top of physically assaulting a foreign official in 1987.

Despite mccain's repeatedly confusing Iran and al Qaeda, one of his top aides lobbied for an Iran-linked firm.

Mccain himself has deep ties to Ahmed Chalabi, who is a known double-agent for Iran (and still continues to be linked to Iran, even after hooking the bush administration up w/ the original false wmd-intel and officials to sell the iraq-war). Chalabi still has mccain’s full support – which is either dangerously incompetent and startlingly naïve....or it is way more sinister than just being naive.

Finally, mccain's running-mate short-list includes a former primary opponent who, on numerous occasions, was about to bait McCain into hitting him – in what was a very nasty and personal fight.

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"

Political Funnies......

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:31:24 GMT

A little political satire.....along with some all too real.

The Mccain Salute...loser

McCAIN’S LOW-COST PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

McCAIN’S COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE PLAN

McCAIN’S PLAN FOR FUEL EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION

McCAIN’S SOLUTION TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY “CRISIS”

McCain's FOREIGN POLICY EXPERTISE

Manchurian Candidate?

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..."

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'Nuff said.

McCain's TaxPlan Will Eliminate Your Health-Insurance

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:43:48 GMT

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.

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On top of McCain’s overall policy of steep tax cuts for high-income Americans, he’s also proposing a very significant tax increase on the broad group of people who receive health insurance through their employers.

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.")

McCain's economic advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin, disputes the characterization of McCain's policy as a tax increase, arguing instead that it"

“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.”

James Kvaal counters that McCain’s plan “would tax workers’ health benefits, which are largely tax-free today,” thus increasing the amount of tax people need to pay, which is a tax increase in any common sense understanding of the term. More important, though, is the fact that the new somewhat counterbalancing subsidy McCain is proposing won’t make up the difference over the long run:

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:

In “most states, individuals with preexisting conditions are denied coverage, have conditions excluded, or face much higher and often unaffordable premiums.” Insurance companies will disqualify patients from coverage for undergoing caesarean sections, or “for just taking certain medicines because of the possibility of future costs, including common drugs as Lipitor, Zocor, Nexium, and Advairpre.

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:

On tax-issue after tax-issue, McCain’s campaign is trying to have it both ways:

– 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.

– McCain’s tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy would blow a hole in the deficit, but McCain promises to balance the budget by 2013.

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,

--give huge tax breaks to the big health insurance companies ($710 million a year for UnitedHealth alone),

--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.

A recent analysis by the Public Campaign Action Fund found that John McCain’s campaign has received $5.6 million from the PACs and executives of the Fortune 500 list.

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.....

Big Pharma's Skyrocketing Drug Price Scam (+IA video clip)

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:03:54 GMT

Drug companies are quietly pushing through price hikes of 100% — or even more than 1,000% — for a very small but growing number of prescription drugs, helping to drive up costs for insurers, patients and government programs.

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.

(via McCain vs. Iowa)

UPDATE:

http://haloscan.com/tb/attaturk/5681612621579115026

American Terrorist Party: The GOP Media

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:09:38 GMT

Two days ago, a gunman walked into the offices of the Democratic Party in Little Rock, Arkansas, and shot the state's chairman to death. The motives are still unclear, but it is starting increasingly to look like yet another case in which an unhinged wingnut decided to "take out" more liberals.

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.

These issues have, of course, never been discussed on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program. O'Reilly has never even mentioned the fact that the Knoxville shooter read his books and evidently watched his show. Indeed, his show not only constantly demonizes liberals, O'Reilly frequently does so by accusing liberals of being the source of vicious hatemongering -- as he did Wednesday, in the segment above, in which he informs us that "the real haters in America are on the far left"

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.

For further information, and examples, check out:

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/03/eliminationism-in-america-appendix.html

Is it any wonder that rightwing, 'conservative,' Republican psychopaths (is that redundant?) are out their killing people/'liberals.'
Their media gurus spout this sort of hate-speech regularly and go unpunished; worse, they are richly rewarded, financially, and defended in the rightwing media echo-chamber.

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.

Why McCain would be a mediocre president (+Video Clip)

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:25:34 GMT

This is pretty cool --

http://maruthecrankpot.blogspot.com/2008/08/awesome-ad.html

---Given that bush's approval ratings are back where they started in 2001 (20+%), isn't it curious that mccain's approval of bush's failed policies ROSE (to 100%).....as he began to campaign for the WH?

Some might even call it pandering...

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

"In his frivolous Paris and Britney ad, Sen. John McCain has asked the right question: Is Barack Obama ready to lead this country? Pollsters and pundits agree that if Obama can show the voters that he's up to the job, he'll win. If not, he won't.

But that begs another question: Is McCain fit to lead America?

That question hasn't been asked, nor has it been answered.

The assumption seems to be that McCain's years of experience in the military and in Congress of course give him the background and tools he'd need in the White House.

But is that true? Does McCain have the right stuff?

A careful look at McCain's biography shows that he isn't prepared for the job. His resume is much thinner than most people think. Here are some reasons why McCain would be a mediocre president:

Lack of accomplishments

Like the current occupant of the White House, McCain got his first career breaks from the connections and money of his family, not from hard work. After his release, McCain knew his weak military record meant he'd never make admiral, so he turned his sights to a career in politics. With the help of his new wife's wealth, his new father-in-law's business connections and some powerful friends had made as a lobbyist for the Navy, he was elected in 1982 to a Congress in a district that he didn't reside in until the day the seat opened up. A few years later, he succeeded Barry Goldwater as a senator.....McCain hasn't accomplished much in the Senate. Even his own campaign doesn't trumpet his successes, probably because the few victories he's had still rankle Republicans.....in the primaries, he campaigned on "I'm not that robotic businessman, I'm not that sanctimonious hick, I'm not that crazy libertarian, I'm not that washed-up actor, I'm not that delusional 9/11 guy." In the general election, he's emphasized that he's not that treasonous dreamer......

No leadership

McCain has frequently taken on near-impossible missions that go against the grain of his party. It's the basis of his reputation as a maverick. But McCain has never been able to bring more than a handful of Republicans along with him on issues such as campaign finance reform or immigration.....to achieve anything as president, McCain would have to win over two hostile parties: The Democrats and the Republicans.

Living in the Sixties

McCain is still fighting the Vietnam War. But he's not fighting the real historic war, which taught us the folly of injecting ourselves into a civil war that was none of our business.

McCain is fighting an imaginary Vietnam War, where a sure victory could have been achieved with just a little more bombing, just a little more "pacification," just a little more will to win at home. This fantasy clouds McCain's judgment on foreign policy......most of the other high-profile politicians who fought in Vietnam -- Colin Powell, Chuck Hegel, John Kerry, and Jim Webb -- aren't stuck in the past, and they don't view the Iraq War as a chance to get Vietnam right.

No principles

After years of honing a reputation as a guy who'll say the truth regardless of the political consequences, McCain has crashed the Straight Talk Express. On almost every issue where he took a principled stand against the Republican line -- taxes, immigration, oil drilling, the Religious Right -- he's changed his views..we ought to like politicians who change their mind when the facts change; it shows maturity, judgment and flexibility. But politicians who change their mind to suit the prevailing winds show the opposite.

The bottom line

Successful presidents come from two molds: visionaries, or mechanics. The visionaries -- think Reagan or FDR -- see what others can't and say 'Why not?" to inspire the country. The mechanics -- think LBJ or Eisenhower -- know the ins and outs of government and are able to harness the power of millions of humans to accomplish great things, or at least keep the wheels from coming off....McCain fits neither style. He's neither a dreamer, nor a detail guy........his major accomplishment, in Vietnam and in the Senate, has been merely to survive.

Just surviving doesn't make you're a hero, or a decent president. America needs to do more than survive the next four years. "

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/why-mccain-would-mediocre-president/story.aspx?guid=%7b4914192B-12AF-4623-AB18-5EFE91204B04%7d&print=true&dist=printMidSection

Read the rest of the article, including the comments. This sounds like valid analysis to me.

bush's Attorney General: "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime."

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:49:08 GMT

It sickens me to think that Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood were disqualified as choices for Attorney General because of nanny taxes.........and yet we get Attorneys General who:

*believe in trashing the Constitution (Ashcroft);

*approve of voter suppression and torture, as well as lie to Congress and reporters (Gonzales);

*who think torture is only torture if it is done to him, won’t prosecute or investigate crimes committed by the Executive Branch, and now thinks that not all violations of the law are crimes (Mukasey).

(Thanks for that last one, Senators Schumer and Feinstein.)

Whether you look at the “regular” definition of the word “crime” or even the legal definition, you will find the most basic “violation of law” as part of the definition.

But this isn’t just to point out that the current Attorney General is willing to say that not every crime is a crime in trying to stretch the boundaries of reality so far as to not prosecute...um....hmmm....what’s the word....oh yeah....crimes by members of his own Justice Department, it is to wonder just what other ~~crimes~~, I mean “violations of the law” are just peachy keen according to the man who only holds the title and position of the nation’s top law enforcement official.

We know that violating the fourth amendment (which is of higher authority than that of “a law”) is not a crime;
We know that ignoring subpoenas by Congress is not a crime (disclaimer: IOKIYAR);
We know that politicizing the internship program at the Justice Department is not a crime;
We know that waterboarding another individual isn’t a crime (unless it is done to him);
We know that destroying taped evidence of torture, after being ordered not to), is not a crime;
We know that top Executive Branch officials ordering torture isn’t a crime;
We know that suppressing people’s right to vote is not a crime;
We will probably soon find out that violating FEC campaign finance rules is not a crime (again, IOKIYAR);
We also know that violating the habeas corpus rules is also not a crime;
We know that lying to Congress is not a crime; and
For good measure, covering for the President himself over potential ~~crimes~~, er, “violations of law” that the President may have committed is most certainly not a crime.

I’m sure that I missed more than a few, but I sure feel safer now that having a funny sounding name or names that sound similar to names that sound funny are worthy of indefinite detaining or “errors”.

Or that living in a house that wasn’t even the house that SWAT teams were supposed to be looking for is their own fault when they are raided or wrongfully arrested.

Torture.

Fabricate evidence to invade another country.

Violate laws in hiring and firing practices.

Illegally suppress voters.

Violate the fourth amendment.

Deliberately blow the cover of a covert CIA operative and an entire network of people working on WMD issues.

Break campaign finance laws.

Ignore congressional subpoenas.

Go ahead - those aren’t crimes and there certainly is a precedent for not being prosecuted.

Just don’t wear a shirt that has a cartoon robot on it while trying to fly or, even worse, wear a t shirt that says “Give Peace A Chance”.

Because those are not only ~~most certainly not in any way~~ violations of the law, but are also crimes.

Anyone else think this country has gone seriously off the tracks during the last 8 years?

Any thoughts on why?

"I don’t see America having problems..."
-- Bush in an Olympic interview with Bob Costas

Did bush/McCotton cause the Georgian Conflict?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:58:53 GMT

"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.

"I've expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn the bombing outside of South Ossetia," Bush told NBC Sports. Putin criticized the United States for viewing Georgia as the victim instead of the aggressor, and for airlifting Georgian troops back home from Iraq on Sunday.

"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:

"As a Russian jet bombed fields around his village, Djimali Avago, a Georgian farmer, asked me: “Why won’t America and Nato help us? If they won’t help us now, why did we help them in Iraq?”

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.)"

http://www.slate.com/id/2197281/

However, "I am not saying it's all our fault. Russia and Georgia are independent actors, and their leaders are responsible for their decisions. But we are also responsible for ours, and if we knowingly encouraged, or even green-lighted, Saakashvili's actions, that is a piece of idiocy on a par with (Bush1's) encouraging the Iraqi Shi'a to revolt after the Gulf War. We should not create expectations we are not prepared to meet."

---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

---HAD they been granted NATO membership, we and Europe would now be at war with Russia (and would also be saying hello to $200 Oil / $6 gas).

Now, American-allied nation is now invaded while bush has rendered the US is helpless to do anything other than 'strongly condemn' and 'beg' the invading country to stop.

Once again, it bears repeating that "Yehaw! Bring'em on!" is NOT a substitute for an integrated foreign policy. Security commitments are serious and should not be made lightly. They shouldn't be entered in to, unless you have the support, desire, and means to follow through.

George W. Bush seems determined to finish his presidency the same way he started it...by ~~reading a book about a Pet Goat~~ posing for photographs with Olympic athletes while our enemies run roughshod over us. And to think that Bush looked into Putin's soul and saw a man he could work with. To think that he is stupid enough to tell us that he was very firm with Putin when Putin left Beijing and reported to the frontlines while Bush remained to watch swimming meets and gymnastics. Bush has invested so much in Georgia and he's just fiddling while Putin turns it all to ashes. What a legacy. What a disgrace.

Elections still have consequences. And the bushes have a history of inciting rebellion, then hanging our allies out to dry (as our Georgian allies are learning to their sorrow). (ie: iraqi shias under bush1).

McCotton's actions up to now don't speak well of his foreign policy credentials. Advocating for Georgian NATO membership would now have us at war. His advocating kicking Russia out of the G8 would have left us with one less bargaining chip in this current sit'n. And finally, his blind support for this iraqi quagmire have left us w/out any military options for deterrence or response.

Foreign policy and diplomacy is a grown-up world of real-politik. We've seen what happens when you put blind, willfully-poorly-informed, ideologues in charge it.

We don't need another 4+ yrs of bush incompetence, which McCotton is promising us.

Also, predictably, the rightwing pundit class immediately compared this (like every other conflict Bush2 has instigated) as comparable to Munich.

"Attempts to compare Russia to Nazi Germany and Georgia to 1938 Czechoslovakia betray the intellectual laziness of certain segments of the American pundit class--not to mention an inability to contemplate a world without titanic struggles between good and evil.)

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

In response:

"So although I wouldn't characterize myself as pro-anyone in this conflict, I think that, given the wave of western pundits comparing the Russians to the Nazis, it might be useful to consider things from the the Russian perspective.

• The Russians think of themselves as intervening to protect the South Ossetians against a hot-headed leader who has repeatedly talked of taking the territory back by any means possible, including force.

• Saakashvili launched an offensive after claiming to want negotiations to stop the escalating crisis. He did so less than twenty-four hours after calling for cease-fire negotiations, in an operation that looks like it wasn't dreamed up overnight (but, given some of its tactical mistakes, it might as well have been).

• The Russians respond with overwhelming force but limit their ground operations (so far) to the break away republics and adjacent staging grounds for Georgian actual or potential military operations. They initiate a naval blockade and commence bombing runs inside of Georgia. The west accused them of "dangerous escalation."

• But if this were a United States operation you can bet that the US navy would be blockading the country and the USAF would be taking out every piece of military hardware or key transportation hub they could find. Indeed, the US would be actively aiming at regime change. The United States did all of these things in the Kosovo campaign.

http://duckofminerva.blogspot.com/2008/08/plea-for-sanity.html

--As did Israel in the '06 Lebannon War.

A short list of Obama's accomplishments

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:08:24 GMT

To ask "What's Obama's record?" without looking it up, is like asking "What are Obama's specific proposals?" without checking his website,

When reporters and TV talking-heads do it, it's journalistic malpractice, because asking those questions that way reinforces the impression carefully created by Obama's opponents that he doesn't have a record or detailed positions.

And that is simply false.....ie: LYING, just like the claim that he didn't want to visit wounded soldiers if he couldn't bring cameras.

A short list of Obama's deeds, counting only his time in elected office, would include, in Illinois:

* Children's health care.
* The earned income tax credit.
* Ethics reform.
* Videotaping of police interrogations (an anti-torture measure, since imitated elsewhere, which required Obama to win the support of law enforcement groups who started out hostile to it).

In Washington, Obama has:

:sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.

:sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.

:introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.

Most of his legislative effort has been in the areas of:

* Energy Efficiency and Climate Change (25 bills)
* Health care (21 bills) and public health (20 bills)
* Consumer protection/labor (14 bills)
* The needs of Veterans and the Armed Forces (13 bills)
* Congressional Ethics and Accountability (12 bills)
* Foreign Policy (10 bills)
* Voting and Elections (9 bills)
* Education (7 bills)
* Hurricane Katrina Relief (6)
* The Environment (5 bills)
* Homeland Security (4 bills)
* Discrimination (4 bills)

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=170995

Among these (some bipartisanly):

Obama worked with Russ Feingold (D–WI) to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in September 2007.

He joined Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed in the 2006 midterm elections.

Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act", a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accountability Office following reports that the procedure had been used inappropriately to reduce government costs.

joined Chuck Hagel (R-NE) in introducing legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill.

Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries. After passing both houses of Congress with bipartisan majorities, SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush in early October 2007

Of course no legislator ever does anything alone, but that's not a bad record; (year-for-year, it's much stronger than McCain's, even counting the parts of McCain's legacy he has already trashed, such as campaign finance reform and opposition to torture).

Some Obama Senatorial Amendments, that have passed:

S.Amdt.159 to S.Con.Res.18 - To prevent and, if necessary, respond to an international outbreak of the avian flu.

S.Amdt.390 to H.R.1268 - To provide meal and telephone benefits for members of the Armed Forces who are recuperating from injuries incurred on active duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.

S.Amdt.670 to H.R.3 - To provide for Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) refueling capability at new and existing refueling station facilities to promote energy security and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

S.Amdt.808 to H.R.6 - To establish a program to develop Fischer-Tropsch transportation fuels from Illinois basin coal.

S.Amdt.851 to H.R.6 - To require the Secretary to establish a Joint Flexible Fuel/Hybrid Vehicle Commercialization Initiative, and for other purposes.

S.Amdt.1362 to S.1042 - To require a report on the Department of Defense Composite Health Care System II.

S.Amdt.1453 to S.1402 - To ensure the protection of military and civilian personnel in the Department of Defense from an influenza pandemic, including an avian influenza pandemic.

S.Amdt.2605 to S.2020 - Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should immediately address issues relating to no-bid contracting.

S.Amdt.2930 to S.2349 - To clarify that availability of legislation does not include nonbusiness days.

S.Amdt.3144 to S.Con.Res.83 - To provide a $40 million increase in FY 2007 for the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program and to improve job services for hard-to-place veterans

S. Amdt 41 to S. 1 To require lobbyists to disclose the candidates, leadership PACs, or political parties for whom they collect or arrange contributions, and the aggregate amount of the contributions collected or arranged.

More on Obama's legislative record and one on Obama's style of bipartisanship, here. Really, this stuff isn't hard to find

It's already clear that McCain is working from the Rove playbook: tell lots of lies about your opponent, gambling that some of them will stick and that the press won't have the gumption to call "bulls---."

So far they've tried muslim, foreign, and radical (which also came from clinton, oddly enough).

Now, mccain's trying: elitist, rockstar, and inexperienced. His latest is from a leaked mccain campaign-memo to paint Obama as a "job-killer"; which is the heighth of irony, given mccain's aid in killing 8000 jobs in ohio, alone.

But that's "how they do:" the gop, under rove, takes their OWN weakness and hurl them at their opponent. Then IF anyone notices, they claim it's just "sour grapes".

I hope it won't work this year, with journalists Marc Ambinder, Joe Klein, and Andrea Mitchell all off the reservation this early;

It looks as if there's a chance mccain is going to lose his gamble on the press rolling over.

However, no one ever went broke betting on the ignorance of the American electorate.

Businesses deliberately cheating U.S. out of $40 billion in payroll taxes

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:39:57 GMT

Businesses deliberately cheating U.S. out of $40 billion in payroll taxes
GAO report says IRS failing to go after repeat offenders; ‘galling’

By Neil Roland

August 1, 2008

"Thousands of U.S. businesses may have criminally avoided paying federal payroll taxes for more than a year—and many have gotten away with it because of the [ed-bush's appointees'] Internal Revenue Service’s lax and inept oversight, congressional investigators found.

The companies, many in the construction industry, have failed to pay Medicare and Social Security taxes for at least 12 months, suggesting possible criminal intent, according to a report today by the Government Accountability Office. All told, these companies have cheated the federal government out of $40 billion in owed taxes. The report also found that more than 9,000 owners of businesses have failed to pay federal payroll taxes for two or more companies they own.

--One businessman who owed $2.5 million in payroll taxes was the subject of 10 lawsuits, was underreporting personal income, and was involved in possible check kiting and money laundering, the report said.

--Another who owed the same amount made large cash withdrawals before filing for many bankruptcies.

--A dentist who owed $1 million in payroll and personal taxes has a $700,000 home and a luxury car, both in his wife’s name, and sold property to his children for less than market value.

Indeed, many violators had the ability to pay. They were not forced to do so because of the IRS’s focus on voluntary compliance or its failure to file tax liens against tax debtors’ property. A total of 1.6 million businesses owe more than $58 billion in federal payroll taxes that have accumulated over the last 10 years, the report found.

The report found “substantial evidence of abusive and potentially criminal activity related to the federal tax system by businesses and their owners or officers.” The Department of Justice has been “somewhat reluctant” to pursue payroll tax cases, in part because they are labor-intensive, said Steve Sebastian, GAO director of financial management and assurance."

[Note: To see the entire GAO report CLICK HERE]

http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080801/REG/729579341

--You would think the 'conservative' hatred of welfare would apply to these million+ cases. You'd be wrong.

This is but another example of a "deregulated" govn. After all, as reagan told us (ad nauseum) "govn is the problem."

Personally, I don't think installing industry-lobbyists to run govn regulatory agencies over their own industries is a good ideal. But then again, I didn't vote for bush for precisely this reason (among others). He had a history of doing this exact same thing as Tx govn.

And when bush cut the IRS's number of regulators auditing the rich and large corporations, to focus on the avg joe's tax returns, this was as predictable as the sun coming up at dawn.

You don't have to be a conspiracy buff to suspect jumping off a cliff will lead to bad consequences.

McCotton has a long history of doing the Exact Same Thing. It'll be instructive if the voters keep this in mind this fall.

I don't mind the rightwing corporate christotaliban getting the govn they deserve; I just feel sorry for the rest of us.

Why is the GOP Preventing Veterans from Voting?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:27:45 GMT

Bush Veterans Affairs Department bans voter registration drives at veterans facilities.

This past May, the Veterans Affairs Department, led by Secretary James Peake, issued a directive prohibiting nonpartisan voter registration drives “at federally financed nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and shelters for homeless veterans.” In today’s New York Times, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz writes, “What is the secretary of Veterans Affairs thinking?“:

"The department has placed an illegitimate obstacle in the way of election officials across the country and, more important, in the way of veterans who want to vote. A group of 21 secretaries of state — Republicans and Democrats throughout the country, led by me and my counterpart in Washington State, Sam Reed — has asked Secretary Peake to lift his department’s ridiculous ban on voter registration drives."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/opinion/11bysiewicz.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

Federal legislation shouldn’t be needed for the Department of Veterans Affairs to lift the ban on voter registration drives by state and local election officials and nonpartisan groups.

The federal government should be doing everything it can to support our nation’s veterans who have served us so courageously. There can be no justification for any barrier that impedes the ability of veterans to participate in democracy’s most fundamental act, the vote.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/11/bush-veterans-affairs-department-bans-voter-registration-drives-at-veterans-facilities/

--Par for the republican course: from fighting Clinton's motor-voter law to requiring govn ID at the polls (apparently to keep Seniors and nuns from voting), the gop has a long and sullied history of voter suppression tactics.

Same as it ever was.

bush is again helping his standard-bearer mccain (who after all is using bush's former advisors and fundraisers to run) to try a bushian end-run around the electorate.

But preventing Vets from voting? How scuzzy can you get?