Recently in politics Category

Obama's eulogy was beautiful.

Kristof reminds us of why America needs TeddyCare:

...Eventually, after the expenses whittled away their combined assets, her husband could go on Medicaid -- but by then their children's nest egg would be gone, along with her 401(k) plan. She would face a bleak retirement with neither her husband nor her savings.

...

So M. divorced the man she loves. I asked him what he thought of this. He can still speak, albeit not always coherently, and he paused a long, long time. All he could manage was: "It's hard to say."

...A study reported in The American Journal of Medicine this month found that 62 percent of American bankruptcies are linked to medical bills. These medical bankruptcies had increased nearly 50 percent in just six years. Astonishingly, 78 percent of these people actually had health insurance, but the gaps and inadequacies left them unprotected when they were hit by devastating bills.

...A 2004 study by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, found that lack of health insurance causes 18,000 unnecessary deaths a year. That's one person slipping through the cracks and dying every half an hour.

This is what GOP RushHate does to America.

I prefer TeddyCare.

Been adding up the price of GOP blocking health care and energy reform.  Scientists just came out with revised UN estimate on per-year cost of global warming -- $200 billion to $300 billion.

Recent economist estimates of cost to U.S. economy of our rich-only, inefficient healthcare system; $100 billion per annum.

So... $400 bill per annum divided by 130 mill < 18 years old in U.S. = $3,000 per year GOP tax on every kid under 18 in America.....

Party of Death...

Saturday, Republican brownshirts sent to shut down democracy in Colorado vandalized cars with union stickers as part of their effort to close down Representative Ed Perlmutter's citizens' meeting on health care reform in the Denver area.

My co-worker, Mike Ditto, went to Congressman Ed Perlmutter's Town Hall meeting on Saturday to listen to him talk to constituents about health insurance reform. While he was there, his car was badly vandalized.

The side mirrors were smashed off.  Big dent on his hood. And scratches and dents on every door and nearly every other panel of his car. All because he had an SEIU Healthcare Rally flier in his car.

$3,000 worth of damage. 

Limbaugh makes $50 million per year.  Tancredo is fomenting hatred against immigrants and Democrats because he's desperate for cash and hopes to become a 'mini-Limbaugh' media personality.Just two of the tools of the same rich GOP Billionaires who tried to overthrow the government in the Clinton era, who are paying to send brownshirts to shut down democratic discussion about health care all across the country: 

FreedomWorks Vice President Max Pappas boasted about "blowing" the town halls "apart"

"increasingly ugly scenes of partisan screaming matches, scuffles, threats and even arrests," .. ... which were part of an orchestrated conservative strategy"

Kristallnacht, anyone? 

While the rest of us are digging the country out of the mess they made the last eight years, these elite old rich white men of the GOP are conspiring to steal it back using the exact same fascist tactics the Nazis used in the 1930s in Germany.

Will you appease or stand up and oppose?

Ruined the economy, so now whining that their black hole is being filled and new jobs are being created.

Ruined America's standing abroad, so whining that we won't go to war in Iran.

50 million Americans without health insurance; half of bankruptcies due to health care costs; highest cost lowest value health care in the world -- all on GOP watch -- so of course opposing health care reform.

Why do they hate America so much?

At least they're not hypocritical moralizers. 

Oh.

I"ve had my head-down building an American business the last few months, so was a little startled to hear Republican Bush-Wannabee Governor Perry publically call for Texas to secede from America today.

My first thought was that, having destroyed America's global standing and economy they now want to blow up the remnants.

My second thought was that this is just the same old politics of fear, hate, and division that they've used the last 20 years ... to destroy the country.  In that sense, predictable.

My third thought was to recall the recent literature I've been reading about Lincoln --- the single issue that nearly destroyed America through the Civil War was the South's desire to secede.

I guess Perry wants to own slaves, or perhaps become King of Mexico.

But I know this is a systematic effort on the part of the increasingly small right wing fringe nuts with money to undermine America's ability to recover as one nation, united....in hopes they can regain power for their personal aggrandizement...

Remarkable moral as well as intellectual fraud.... 

I haven't watched all the Couric interviews etc so I actually had reasonably high expectations for Palin tonight.  After all she was chosen by the GOP to be VP so I assumed she'd be solid and substantive.

She simply didn't show up, and Biden was terrific.

This is the end of the McCain effort.

Now, though, Obama/Biden get to deal with our little 22 trillion dollar economic issue....

1. We have to make a move
2. The salaries of those who will manage the new Resolution Trust Corp (or whatever it ends up being called) are completely irrelevant.  Arguing about caps on those salaries just means we'lll get less adept people to deal with this and waste more time which makes the situation more precarious
3.  The Wall Street executives who are 'guilty' of getting us into this mess are only part of the problem -- and have lost more proportionately than the rest of us will in higher taxes the next decade.  It's popular to deride them as evil fat cats -- the reality is their reputations and wealth have been crushed.  Move on.
4.  Plenty of blame to go around -- culture of excess but mostly that capital flows during the last twenty years have completely outpaced the regulatory system that exists -- in the context of right-wing vehement anti-regulation.
5.  Finance is at heart a confidence game. It's much more important to restore confidence now so we can continue to play the game than to assign blame.
6.  Barney Frank has a smart insight -- well-managed, the assets taken up by the new RTC over time may well be worth much more than their purchase price.  Net cost to taxpayer in that event?  Less than zero.
7.  Put Bloomberg in charge of the new RTC -- he gets it, is independent, doesn't need the money, cares about New York...

Everyone needs to take a step back and a deep breath, get this done this week with reasonable oversight and controls, and get back to business.

Oh, and throw out the idiotic GOP which is more responsible, over 25 years of ignorance and malfeasance, for creating the mess than any other entity... and do NOT let John McCain, Mr. Economic Igorance at An Advanced Age, or Ms. Sarah Palin, Ms ... ???? ... anywhere close to the joint...

... anything;

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we're in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We're burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn't seem so.

Guiliani tells Brokaw on "Meet the Press" that Palin is ready on foreign policy because the most vital attribute for foreign policy leadership is 'executive experience'.

That of course disqualifies McCain entirely, and also says  Bush, who had much more 'executive experience' as Governor of Texas (and, they argued, as one of the owners of the Texas Rangers -- remember all that??) was one of our most-prepared-for-foreign policy leaders ever... ... .

How's he managed?

The one thing he has had to manage entirely on his watch, from the choice to launch to today, is his Iraq adventure.

Woodward follows Guiliani on show and one of first quotes they read  from his new book is ;

After ordering the invasion, the president spent three years in denial and then delegated a strategy review to his national security adviser.  Bush was intolerant of confrontations and in-depth debate.  There was no deadline, no hurry.  The president was engaged in the war rhetorically but maintained an odd detachment from its management.  He never got a full handle on it, and over these years of war, too often he failed to lead.

Woodward goes on to characterize Bush' management of the war since 2006; 'He's kind of wringing his hands'.

Another striking Palinesque note -- when Pelosi reached out to Bush privately to try to find some way to work together and asked "Can't we find a way to end this diviseness and work together?' he responded with 'My views are known and unalterable'.

Frank Rich has a good column today about the GOP affirmative action program that is Sarah Palin. 

Other Palin ledes today;

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes

Speaking of executive experience, here is the low-down on the truly tiny job that is Mayor of Wasilla in oil-subsidized Alaska

The universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed even by the standards of small towns, which limited Palin's exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.

With so many government services in the state subsidized by oil revenue, and with no need to provide for local schools, Wasilla has also made do with a very low property tax rate -- cut altogether by Palin's successor -- sparing it from the tax battles that localities elsewhere must deal with. Instead, the city collects a 2 percent sales tax, the bulk of which is paid by people who live outside town and shop at its big-box stores.The mayor oversees a police department created three years before Palin took office; the public works department; the parks and recreation department; a planning office; a library; and a small history museum. ... ...When Palin was mayor, the population was just 5,500.

...Palin limited her duties further by hiring a deputy administrator to handle much of the town's day-to-day management. Her top achievement as mayor was the construction of an ice rink, a project that landed in the courts and cost the city more than expected.

Perhaps the scariest quote of all from the piece;

"People said, 'What are you doing to my city? I liked it better when we didn't have government,' '' said Richard Deuser, the city attorney at the time. "And Sarah really pandered to that resentment, that resistance to change. Sarah became their person."

And...

..."Sarah always did and still does surround herself with people she gets along well with," she said. "They protect her, and that's what she needs. She has surrounded herself with people who would not allow others to disagree with Sarah. Either you were in favor of everything Sarah was doing or had a black mark by your name."

AP breaking;

The abuse of power investigation against Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, took a potentially ominous turn for her party today when state lawmakers voted to subpoena her husband.

Republican efforts to delay the probe until after the Nov. 4 election were thwarted when GOP state Sen. Charlie Huggins, who represents Palin's hometown of Wasilla, sided with Democrats. "Let's just get the facts on the table," said Huggins, who appeared in camouflage pants to vote during a break from moose hunting.