Clipmarks | lp97702's clips

McCain First

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:34:06 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: If you haven't read this article - READ IT. If you are like me or Andrew O'Sullivan and wonder why we are seeing a John McCain we never knew, this answers the question.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

McCAIN FIRST

This is the story of the real John McCain, the one who has been hiding in plain sight. It is the story of a man who has consistently put his own advancement above all else, a man willing to say and do anything to achieve his ultimate ambition: to become commander in chief, ascending to the one position that would finally enable him to outrank his four-star father and grandfather.

Tags: mccain

Best president's for the economy?

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:23:25 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: I've looked at this issue a lot. In essence, we're being fooled into believing the Republican's are better on the economy. They aren't and they haven't been. Period.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Which president produced:

1. The highest growth in the gross domestic product?
2. The highest growth in jobs?
3. The biggest increase in personal disposable income after taxes?
4. The highest growth in industrial production?
5. The highest growth in hourly wages?
6. The lowest Misery Index (inflation plus unemployment)?
7. The lowest inflation?
8. The largest reduction in the deficit?

The answers: 1. Harry Truman, 2. Bill Clinton, 3. Lyndon Johnson, 4. John F. Kennedy, 5. Johnson, 6. Truman, 7. Truman, 8. Clinton. In the Economic Sweepstakes, Democratic presidents trounce Republicans eight times out of eight!

Tags: republicans, economy

McBush

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:06:33 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: A very articulate comparison...

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Perhaps John McCain is not a perfect replica of George W. Bush, but the parallels go beyond the senator's enthusiastic support for the toxic mix of Bush's imperial foreign policy and his arrogant indifference to the travails of our domestic existence. Neither man seems to have any sense of how we actually live or what we need from government. How else to explain their common antipathy to Social Security and Medicare, which, after public education, represent the nation's most successful programs? Can you imagine the panic today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in tying Social Security to investments in the stock market? They view government as nothing more than a proud sponsor of the military-industrial complex while ignoring the threat to homeland security from corporate pirates.

Tags: bush, mccain

The Bush "Plagues"

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:05:11 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: I'm not a religious man either but just maybe God is having his way with W.

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Robert Scheer: A Plague Upon the White House

I am not a conventionally religious man, or even a very superstitious one, but I do wish George Bush would stop asking God to bless America. Every time he does, we seem to be visited with another plague, suggesting divine wrath over our president's evil ways. How else to explain the persistent calamity that has marked this administration: a pointless but very costly war over nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the devastating New Orleans flood, the betrayal of the nation by the money-changers--from Enron to Goldman Sachs--that Bush welcomed into the temple of the White House?

Tags: bush

McCain's gambit: We call your bluff...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:34:20 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: It's a stunt...

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Reid to McCain: Just Stay Away

So far Dems are more than just a little lukewarm to this McCain gambit.

Here's part of Sen. Harry Reid's just-released statement:

I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at Senator Obama's suggestion. But it would not be helpful at this time to have them come back during these negotiations and risk injecting presidential politics into this process or distract important talks about the future of our nation's economy. If that changes, we will call upon them. We need leadership; not a campaign photo op.

Reid also calls for the debate to go on as scheduled.

Tags: mccai

Palin the welfare queen

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:25:06 GMT

clipped by: lp97702

Clip Source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Welfare Queen

The logic behind it is the direct opposite of McCain's anti-pork message. I think the best way to think of Palin is as a welfare queen, draining other people's money in order to enrich Alaskans and get her more votes. As Kinsley put it in his must-read Time column:

Alaska ranks No. 1, year after year, in money it sucks in from Washington. In 2005 (the most recent figures), according to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranked 18th in federal taxes paid per resident ($5,434) but first in federal spending received per resident ($13,950). Its ratio of federal spending received to federal taxes paid ranks third among the 50 states, and in the absolute amount it receives from Washington over and above the amount it sends to Washington, Alaska ranks No. 1.

And she has the gall to talk about Other People's Money. All she has done her entire life is take other people's money. Mainly yours.

Tags: palin

Greatest destruction of financial wealth

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:59:27 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Ok, who do we blame???

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Wash Post: "What we are witnessing may be the greatest destruction of financial wealth that the world has ever seen"

I don't claim to understand everything in this article- Chris is our financial guru - but it strikes me as a damn good explanation of what happened this week, and where things are heading. From the Washington Post:

What we are witnessing may be the greatest destruction of financial wealth that the world has ever seen -- paper losses measured in the trillions of dollars. Corporate wealth. Oil wealth. Real estate wealth. Bank wealth. Private-equity wealth. Hedge fund wealth. Pension wealth. It's a painful reminder that, when you strip away all the complexity and trappings from the magnificent new global infrastructure, finance is still a confidence game -- and once the confidence goes, there's no telling when the selling will stop.

Tags: economy

McCain, Gramm and the current meltdown

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:20:42 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: So here's why we have these problems....

Clip Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

McCain and the Meltdown

McCain's former economic adviser is ex-Texas Sen. Phil Gramm. On Dec. 15, 2000, hours before Congress was to leave for Christmas recess, Gramm had a 262-page amendment slipped into the appropriations bill. It forbade federal agencies to regulate the financial derivatives that greased the skids for passing along risky mortgage-backed securities to investors.

And that, my friends, is why everything's falling apart. That is why the taxpayers are now on the hook for the follies of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns and now the insurance giant AIG to the tune of $85 billion.

Tags: mccain, gramm

Caught again....

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:24:12 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Remember Andrew was a Ron Paul supporter in the primaries...

Clip Source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

The Desperation Of Denial

After Bush, Republicans harping about big government is, well, risible. I laid out the indictment in my book. Bruce Bartlett did the same. There's a level of denial here that is truly unhinged. No party has done more to destroy America's fiscal standing than the GOP under Bush. No president has grown government more sharply since LBJ and, by some measures, FDR:

Tags: mccain

Cafferty on another great idea McCain supported

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:16:16 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Blistering...again

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Cafferty Mocks McCain: Is privatizing Social Security really a good idea?

[Video]

Tags: mccain, social security

Hagel on Palin

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:36:00 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Well, this had to be expected given Hagel's history of being honest even if it isn't in line with the R talking points.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Hagel: Palin "Doesn't Have Any Foreign Policy Credentials"

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Wednesday became the nation's most prominent Republican officeholder to publicly question whether Sarah Palin has the experience to serve as president.

"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," Hagel said in an interview. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."

"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States," Hagel said.

Tags: hagel, palin

Nixon and McCain

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:20:21 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: I like this

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Too Many McCains

He is outdoing the 1960 Richard Nixon, of whom John F. Kennedy said, "It must be hard getting up every morning and having to decide who you're going to be that day."

Tags: mccain

From the right: Sarah doesn't understand the economy

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:12:54 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Then he say's it's olk because neither did Reagan...

Clip Source: gregransom.com

TRANSCRIPT -- SARAH PALIN'S INTERVIEW

WITH SEAN HANNITY.

Let's admit it folks, when it comes to understanding markets and the economy, Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan. Someone at the Heritage Foundation or FEE or the CATO Institute needs to reach out to Palin and offer her some free tutoring on the regulatory mess in the financial sector, the nature of the trade cycle, and the operations of the Fed. Really guys. It's time for folks to step up like Martin Anderson and Milton Friedman did helping Reagan understand the economy when the future President came on the national scene.

Greg Ransom

on September 18, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tags: palin

Krauthammer

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:08:37 GMT

clipped by: lp97702

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Colby King Thinks Charles Krauthammer Is High

McCain the "populist"

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:57:42 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Yeah, right....

Clip Source: www.bloglines.com

Gail Collins has a must-read snarkfest that mocks John McCain unmercifully:

Folks were wildly enthusiastic as the event began. That was partly because Sarah Palin was also on the bill. (With Todd!) And when McCain took the center stage, they were itching to cheer the war hero and boo all references to pork-barrel spenders.

Nobody had warned them that he had just morphed into a new persona — a raging populist demanding more regulation of the nation’s financial system. And since McCain’s willingness to make speeches that have nothing to do with his actual beliefs is not matched by an ability to give them, he wound up sounding like Bob Dole impersonating Huey Long.

Tags: mccain