9 posts tagged “politics”

Jon Taplin pointed his readers to Bill Gross's June 2008 Investment Outlook. This quote calls out the American people and our presidential contenders for fooling ourselves.

What this country needs is either a good 5¢ cigar or the reincarnation of an Illinois “rail-splitter” willing to tell the American people “what up” – “what really up.” We have for so long now been willing to be entertained rather than informed, that we more or less accept majority opinion, perpetually shaped by ratings obsessed media, at face value. After 12 months of an endless primary campaign barrage, for instance, most of us believe that a candidate’s preacher – Democrat orRepublican – should be a significant factor in how we vote. We care more about who’s going to be eliminated from this week’s American Idol than the deteriorating quality of our healthcare system. Alternative energy discussion takes a bleacher’s seat to the latest foibles of Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears and then we wonder why gas is four bucks a gallon. We care as much as we always have – we just care about the wrong things: entertainment, as opposed to informed choices; trivia vs. hardcore ideological debate.

It’s Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum folks, and all good fun, but the hordes are crossing the Alps and headed for modern day Rome – better educated, harder working, and willing to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. Can it be any wonder that an estimated 1% of America’s wealth migrates into foreign hands every year? We, as a people, are overweight, poorly educated, overindulged, and imbued with such a sense of self importance on a geopolitical scale, that our allies are dropping like flies. “Yes we can?” Well, if so, then the “we” is the critical element, not the leader that will be chosen in November. Let’s get off the couch and shape up – physically, intellectually, and institutionally – and begin to make some informed choices about our future. Lincoln didn’t say it, but might have agreed, that the worst part about being fooled is fooling yourself, and as a nation, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that for a long time now.

Looking forward, Barack can win both Wyoming and Mississippi this week. Then he has a four week battle to take it to Clinton, Inc. in Pennsylvania. He has to prove to his supporters that he can throw a punch just as much as he can take Hillary’s below the belt hits. We’re not voting for Gandhi here.--Jon Taplin, March 3, 2008.

Had Bush not waged a nasty smear campaign against McCain in South Carolina, McCain would have gotten my vote for President in 2000. Back then Al Gore seemed boring to me, and sadly that was as deep as my political knowledge went. I didn't know who George W. Bush was, but I had heard a lot about McCain. He was a Republican but seemed moderate enough for my liking.

Now however I know a lot more about John McCain. He sides on the Democratic side of many points. He is a moderate conservative by most measures and his party is afraid of him because of it. But don't be fooled. McCain is not a Democrat in hiding. When it comes to war he may be even crazier than the rest of his party.

Bombing Soviet ships, of course, would probably have started World War III, but McCain's vision, then and now, encompasses war as a way of life. There is significant evidence that McCain believes war is something righteous and necessary, a tonic for the national soul, intrinsically "noble" irrespective of context (he is still one of the only politicians to apply that word to the Iraq conflict). That is why it's no joke when McCain says casually, "There's gonna be other wars," or when he sings, "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." We have to assume that he will jump at the chance to expand this conflict and hit those politically sensitive targets his "complete idiot" civilian commanders once barred him from going after in Vietnam.--(emphasis mine) Rolling Stone, March 6, 2008.

Onward to Victory is a key element of the McCain platform. He refused to back down on the idea that the surge was working for so long, that for a moment McCain seemed like he'd been right all along. This is not the case. The "surge" has failed.

On the surface Iraq is calm. (The lyric "Calm like a bomb" comes to mind.) The way the United States has achieved this calmness is very much like lighting a slow-burning fuse to a massive powder keg and hoping someone else comes along and extinguishes the flame before everything is blown to bits.

Now, in the midst of the surge, the Bush administration has done an about-face. Having lost the civil war, many Sunnis were suddenly desperate to switch sides — and Gen. David Petraeus was eager to oblige. The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq — it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the very Sunni militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces. To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq's central government. The Americans call the units by a variety of euphemisms: Iraqi Security Volunteers (ISVs), neighborhood watch groups, Concerned Local Citizens, Critical Infrastructure Security. The militias prefer a simpler and more dramatic name: They call themselves Sahwa, or "the Awakening." -- Rolling Stone, March 6, 2008.

By continuing to insist that the "surge," of which buying the loyalty of former enemies is a large part, is working McCain is showing is true conservative side.

If you're planning on voting for Hilary, but not Obama. Or Obama but not Hilary, please consider the alternative.

This story from Rolling Stone is a few issues old, but can be found online. In the War on Terror, it seems there is

lack of domestic suspects. However the success of this war is measured the number of terror charges levied against suspects. Any time numbers and crime get involved, the stats get juked.

"The hope is that they will nab an actual terrorist or prevent a putative jihadi from becoming one," says David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University and co-author of Less Safe, Less Free, a new book detailing the ways 9/11 has transformed domestic law enforcement. "It makes sense in general —but when you're pressing people to undertake conduct they would have never undertaken without an informant pushing them along, there is a real question if you're creating crime, not preventing crime." -- Rolling Stone, The Fear Factory, Feb. 7 2008.

The news today is that an economic stimulus package designed by the House and approved the White House* will include tax rebates aimed at the poorest Americans. The reason for making sure that poor families receive these rebates is poor families are more likely to spend the money, putting it back into the economy in an effort to stave off recession. In an era where the American savings rate is near Depression-era levels,  discouraging savings, especially among the poor, makes no sense to me.

This stimulant package reminds me of states' use of lottery games to fill their coffers. Lotteries are often called a tax on the poor, because the most common players of the game are those living below median income. The stimulant package reeks of the same ideas.

Giving them a tax rebate, because it will be likely be spent instead of saved is another method by which America's poor are forced to stay in their current conditions.

*The bill is unlikely to make it through the Senate in it's current state.

"Six months ago it was Iraq around the clock. Now it's all about the economy stupid"

Looks like I'm not alone in thinking that the looming (already here?) economy crisis has surpassed the Iraq war as the issue for the '08 Campaign.

More smart analysis from Jon Tapin's blog.

An honest politician would tell the country the truth. The era of cheap oil, easy credit and spending more than you earn is over. America cannot exist with 70% of its economy based on consumers spending at the mall. We will actually have to rebuild our manufacturing base and that means we will have to rebuild our infrastructure. We can no longer be 16th in the world in Broadband Diffusion, 26th in the world in 12th grade science scores and pay our teachers like they were flipping hamburgers. This transition is going to be painful as people pay off their credit cards, reduce their silly spending for things they don’t need and become more resistant to the 5000 commercial messages a day they are bombarded with. I am reminded of John Kenneth Galbraith’s book, The Affluent Society. Galbraith’s assertion that the perfection of modern advertising in creating desire for products we didn’t know we needed puts the modern American member of the middle class in the position of the gerbil on the tread wheel: running faster and faster, but making no progress in relation to his neighbors.

I'm glad I'm debt free with savings in the bank, but I wish I could convince more friends and family to do the same. The problems we're facing aren't going away. The stimulus package being batted around on The Hill is a stop-gap measure at best. This is the new America, folks.

As the primary and caucus season rolls on, I continue to evaluate the candidates. I'm no fool to believe that the next president will see every plank in their current platform come to fruition, so I'm trying to determine what my issue is. What the issue will be when I step into the booth in November, and who'll be the best candidate for advancing that issue.

Kentucky's primary date is so late in the year, that the each party's candidate we'll be more than likely already be cemented in place. For the time being I'm reading as much as I can about the major candidates from both parties. My gut reaction to the last eight years is to say I'll vote Democratic no matter the candidate, and while the Blue team seem largely a more sane group than the Red team, I'm trying to keep an open mind.

I can say that as sad as it may seem, the war is not a top issue for me anymore. What upsets me about the war are the lies and manipulations that took place leading up to the war. The key players in those tactics will vanish with the inauguration of whoever wins the election, hopefully. The Republican candidates mostly argue that we stay the course while the Democratic candidates each have slightly differing plans for withdrawal from Iraq. I could go either way, and would like to believe that whoever is eventually in charge of that decision will listen closely to expert voices before acting.

Many of the issues I feel strongly about are based on two sources: The Millennium Development Goals and the issues of poverty, politics, drugs and education that David Simon has chosen to address in his television show The Wire. These may seem like vastly different sources but are actually quite similar.

The Millennium Development Goals are:

1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote Gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat AIDS/HIV, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

I also want a president who will support scientific research in all fields, not restrict the ability of scientists to conduct that research. My ideal candidate will be one who supports the mission statement of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which is advancing science throughout the world for the benefit of all people.

In order to make an informed decision in November I'm constantly seeking evidence of the candidates' stance on these issues.

"If the Democrats were going to sit down and construct the perfect candidate for 2008, they'd be hard-pressed to improve on Gore. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he has no controversial vote on Iraq to defend. Unlike Barack Obama and John Edwards, he has extensive experience in both the Senate and the White House. He has put aside his wooden, policy-wonk demeanor to emerge as the Bush administration's most eloquent critic. And thanks to An Inconvenient Truth, Gore is not only the most impassioned leader on the most urgent crisis facing the planet, he's also a Hollywood celebrity, the star of the third-highest-grossing documentary of all time.

I really want to be in the Obama camp, and I unless Gore does join the campaign I will be. But I agree with this Rolling Stone article that the Democrats would win with Gore this time around.