Tag: 2008

Senator Mike Gravel has done it again. The one guy in all of Congress who had the balls to read out loud “The Pentagon Papers” into the public record (risking his life, when it was still classified, top-secret material), and began a chain of events that led to both the end of the Vietnam War, and also Richard Nixon’s self-destruction and Impeachment, is back in the public square.

That’s right, not only is he back but Mike Gravel is the President of The United States, on a new TV show called: “I Like Mike“.  It is not yet known what station will carry it, or what time on TV it is going to be scheduled on TV, but there is already a very detailed Web Site setup about the show that describes a lot of information (you can even invest in the actual show) — see: I Like Mike TV — so I assume this is a real project that’s really going forward.

Lord_Mike posted this link in  quick hits at OpenLeft.

White House considering “orderly” bankruptcy to deal with ailing automakers Jennifer Loven, AP White House Correspondent, Thursday December 18, 2008, WASHINGTON (AP) —

The Bush administration is seriously considering “orderly” bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry. —  snip —  

A global economic meltdown has sent auto sales tumbling 32 percent in October alone, which could shake the entire auto industry to its core.

Link

The Obama Test:  Personnel is Policy

Forget the election. With November 4 just days away and Barack Obama positioned to become the nation’s first African American president, the question has begun to turn to: Who gets what?  

While I don’t think we should forget the election just yet, I do agree that “who is going to get what” is a looming question on the minds of many.  

Dishonorable Mention ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

Dimensions: 56″ x 20″

Description: Oversized American flag award ribbon with presidential seal and articles of Impeachment from Bill Clinton’s term contrasted with the documented, yet not acted-upon,  impeachable offenses committed by George W. Bush.

Materials: Three American flags, Acetate, gold trim, iron on transfer of Presidential Seal, plastic needlepoint grid.

See larger views of the artwork on my blog BLOG . Cross-posted there and at DailyKos.

The “war hero” candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam.  

Included in the evidence that McCain and his government allies suppressed or sought to discredit the story that American POWs were left behind is a transcript of a senior North Vietnamese general’s briefing of the Hanoi politburo, discovered in Soviet archives by an American scholar in 1993. The briefing took place only four months before the 1973 peace accords. The general, Tran Van Quang, told the politburo members that Hanoi was holding 1,205 American prisoners but would keep many of them at war’s end as leverage to ensure getting war reparations from Washington, which never came.

Imagine.  1,205 POWs left to rot in the caves and prison camps of Viet Nam while Haliburton bills US tax payers for monogrammed towels.  

(more)  

As the GOP primary battle waged, the wingnuts including Paul Weyrich opposed McCain with all of their holy rightousness and threatened to vote third party.  

Who is Paul Weyrich?

Paul Weyrich, often called the founding father of the conservative movement, cofounded with Edwin Feulner (and a lot of Coors cash) the Heritage Foundation in 1973. He currently is associated with the secretive far-right outfit the Council on National Policy and heads up the Free Congress Foundation, described by Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine as “an army of well-financed, loyal ideologues, each occupying a place in the power structure and with enough reach to turn ideas into policy. Link

Many conservatives would at least consider his views when voting.  

Dear Senator McCain,

Enter public life determined to tell the truth; to put problem-solving ahead of partisanship; to defend the public interest against the special interests; to risk your personal ambitions for the sake of the country and the ideals that make her great. Keep your promise to America, and you will keep your honor. You will know a happiness far more sublime than pleasure.  source

It rains down on you like a cold shower, doesn’t it?  These are your own words, Senator.  In the rush of the past couple of weeks, have you stopped to take a look at what you are doing, what path you are taking?

We all understand that the truth gets stretched in a political campaign.  Usually there is at least the facade of truth, a plausible link to the truth, that lets the practice be tolerated.  But you’ve chosen to dispense with the facade of truth.  You choose to lie.

Your ambition to be President is so great that you have completely sublimated your identity and personality to grasp that which you covet.  Your ability to make decisions and stand for yourself is gone.

It is the economy, again, stupid.   Working class families are fearful, but the opportunity for mis-information is high.  

Senator Obama is using the Detroit Labor Day kickoff to emphasize three messages: addressing the needs of working people, the key role unions play in the election, and the role of manufacturing and the auto industry,” Shaiken said. Both the Democratic presidential nominee and Republican rival Sen. John McCain are fighting for union members — a key voting bloc in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other swing states. Link

Obama/Biden and the populist message are on-track.  

Drum Major Institute’s (DMI) first annual survey on the Middle Class and Public Policy reveals that America’s middle-class households are fearful families – overwhelmingly pessimistic about the direction of the country, especially the economy and high gas prices.

Most have little flexibility in their own economic situations and have little if anything left over each month after meeting basic expenses. The middle class is disgruntled with the direction of the country and politicians and see little coming out of Washington that would give them cause for optimism.

Middle-class Americans do know what they want.