Clipmarks | masbury's 'mccain' clips

What Cindy wore for her RNC speech: $313,000

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:45:08 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: For how many years would Cindy's clothes outlay for one night feed your family? What would you have to do to your conscience to spend $300K on clothes?

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

It kicked off on Monday with Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush in Oscar de la Renta.

Vanity Fair editors estimated that McCain's fierce saffron shirt dress with the popped collar, diamond earrings, four-strand pearl necklace, white Chanel watch and strappy shoes totaled up to $313,100.

And Bush's white sensible suit, Stuart Weitzman heels and pearl stud earrings would ring up to $4,325.

Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, waves during her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

"She appreciates very well-made clothes and that have rich, luxurious fabrics," said Sasha Iglehart, Glamour magazine's Deputy Fashion Director

Tags: mccain, cindy, dress, rnc

Friedman: Only one green candidate remains

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:27:01 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: McCain, by taking on Palin and dodging votes on green energy "has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil."

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Obama Is The Only Remaining Green Candidate, Says Times' Friedman

As we emerge from Labor Day, college students are gathering back on campuses not only to start the fall semester, but also, in some cases, to vote for the first time in a presidential election. There is no bigger issue on campuses these days than environment/energy. Going into this election, I thought that -- for the first time -- we would have a choice between two "green" candidates. That view is no longer operative -- and college students (and everyone else) need to understand that.

With his choice of Sarah Palin -- the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change -- for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil.

McCain has forfeited any claim to be a green candidate.

Read the full story here

Tags: mccain, friedman, palin

I can relate, but you don't want me as president

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:22:23 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: When the call comes at 3AM I want a mind who was at the top of their class, who has gravitas and a real intellect
I want a leader who is a scholar who can hold the history of civilization in his head and will read and learn from the past as he charts the future.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

The scariest thing I hear about the Palin nomination was that she would appeal to voters because they would be able to relate to her and she to them

I am a recovering addict alcoholic and finding another group that relates to my struggles is/was key to my sobriety

The problem is I may be relatable and share some of your experiences and concerns but you don't want me as president of United States.

I couldn't hold my own for one minute in a debate on any issue with someone like a Barack Obama or Joseph Biden and neither can Sarah Palin

When the call comes at 3AM I want a mind who was at the top of their class, who has gravitas and a real intellect

I want a leader who is a scholar who can hold the history of civilization in his head and will read and learn from the past as he charts the future.

This is the hardest time this generation has ever faced and people are all scared about the economy, our health care and

our children's futures. That is what millions of Americans and I can relate to.

Tags: obama, palin, biden, mccain, politics

McCain allies move to derail Troopergate investigation

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:16:32 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: in order to prevent an October surprise, they'll work to keep us in the dark until after the election

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

McCain Allies Move To Derail Troopergate Investigation

Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.

In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.

Tags: mccain, palin, troopergate

St Paul the past; Denver the future of political demographics

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:20:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: RNC relies on shrinking demographic groups - growing whiter and older. Dem support comes from fastest growing demographic groups.

Clip Source: tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com

As I surveyed the crowd, I had an overriding thought: 'This place is really white.'

At Invesco, I was surrounded by blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and whites; young and old; male and female; gays and straights

in St. Paul. The crowd consisted of middle-aged white men and middle-aged white women

Apparently my eyes don't lie. At the DNC, 34 percent of the delegates were black or Hispanic. At the RNC, 93% of delegates are white, 5% Hispanic and only 1.5% African-American - in fact, it is the lowest black delegate representation at a Republican convention in 40 years.

Obama is capturing

his support comes from the part of the population that is fastest growing

McCain's support comes largely from white voters and in particular older Americans

not to say that John McCain will necessarily lose

But having stood on the floor of both convention halls this past week, it seems quite clear that Denver represents the future of American politics - and St. Paul is the past.

Tags: politics, race

Factcheck: McCain distorts truth in StPaul speech

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:04:04 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Is he lying or confused?

Clip Source: www.factcheck.org

McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs" and would put "a bureaucrat ... between you and your doctor." In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.

McCain attacked Obama for voting for "corporate welfare" for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy, energy efficiency and alternative fuels.

said oil imports send "$700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much." But the U.S. is on track to import a total of only $536 billion worth of oil

a third of that comes from Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

promised to increase use of "wind, tide [and] solar"

his actual energy plan contains no new money for renewable energy

called for "reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs," but

failed to cite a single program

Tags: mccain, speech, rnc, lies

Factcheck: Palin, Giulani, Huckabee have facts wrong at RNC

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:58:25 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Is this ignorance? Or deliberate deception?

Clip Source: www.factcheck.org

Palin’s accusation that Obama hasn’t authored “a single major law or even a reform” in the U.S. Senate or the Illinois Senate is simply not a fair assessment. Obama has helped push through major ethics reforms in both bodies, for example.

Giuliani distorted the time line and substance of Obama’s statements about the conflict between Russia and Georgia

Huckabee told conventioneers

that Palin got more votes when she ran for mayor of Wasilla than Biden did running for presiden

Not even close. The tally: Biden, 79,754, despite withdrawing from the race after the Iowa caucuses. Palin, 909 in her 1999 race, 651 in 1996

Palin may have said “Thanks, but no thanks” on the Bridge to Nowhere

But that was a sharp turnaround from the position she took during her gubernatorial campaign

The Alaska governor avoided some of McCain’s false claims about Obama’s tax program – but her attacks still failed to give the whole story.

Tags: palin, giulani, huckabee

Iraqi man: I wish McCain had Iraqis tell about surge

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:34:33 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Sami Rasouli is an ... Iraqi American who grew up in Najaf. He left Iraq in the late 1970s, eventually moving to the United States, and became a US citizen. In November 2004, nearly thirty years after leaving Iraq, Sami returned home to help rebuild his country."

Clip Source: www.democracynow.org

As you and the audience, the viewers, and many Iraqis still remember, Mr. Biden, when he introduced the bill to the Congress last year to partition Iraq, now he came back on the ticket. So that was not a surprise for me, at least, because the surge has accomplished one of its objectives, that Iraq is ready to be partitioned, by expelling or displacing more than five million Iraqis within the country and outside of the country.

And most of those displaced people are Sunni, and they lived in the capital, the jewel of Mesopotamia, Baghdad, which is now a very depressed city, isolated by walls. Communities are segregated, and they have no way to move freely, unless they have their own badges from this community and another community. And the division is based on their background ethnically or religiously. It’s too bad for an Iraqi.

I wish yesterday Mr. McCain invited an average Iraqi family to attend and talk about the effect of the surge and the military operation

on Iraqi lives.

Tags: iraq, surge, mccain

Greenwald: The Republicans' Cheerful Viciousness

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:18:56 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Rendering issues irrelevant and converting campaigns into culture wars (h/t ratilfar!)

Clip Source: www.salon.com

With last night's cheerfully vicious speeches from Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, the Republicans did what they always do in order to win elections: they exploited raw cultural divides while mocking, belittling and demonizing Democratic leaders.

Ever since Ronald Reagan's election, this is what the Republicans do every four years. They render issues irrelevant and convert campaigns into cultural wars and personality referenda

Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin

while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues).

Tags: republican

Everyone does better with Dems in the White House

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:06:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Over the last six decades, whether rich or poor, everyone has done better with Democrats in the White House.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Why McCain and the GOP Are So Afraid of Discussing the Economy

Over the last six decades, whether rich or poor, everyone has done better with Democrats in the White House.

From 1948 to 2007, the average annual growth of real gross national product was 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.

Blinder notes that this 1.14-point difference over eight years would yield 9.33 percent more income per person

Alan S. Blinder, in the New York Times, drew recently from Unequal Democracy, a new book by Princeton political science professor Larry M. Bartels. His takeaway could be a game-changer:

real per capita GNP grew 69.5 percent faster under the Democrats

Families at the 20th percentile (the poorest) did significantly better under Democrats t

The best-off families

fared almost as well under Republican

Income inequality

trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats

Tags: economy, republican, democrat

McCain acceptance speech: I WAS A POW

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:57:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "And I have the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not." How would he help poor people? "I will keep taxes low...My opponent will raise them." And then bemoans "partisan rancor." And the crowd breaks into a chant of "Drill, baby, drill!"
This is a snow job if ever one has been foisted upon America. Give 'em answers that do nothing and make 'em feel patriotic about entropy.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

McCain Uses His Big Speech to Give Us a Tour of His Vietnamese Prison Cell

Number of sentences in John McCain's acceptance speech about his experience as a POW in Vietnam: 43.

Number of sentences about his 25 years in the House and Senate: 8.

The convention ended as it began: a commemoration of McCain's hellish years in a Hanoi prison cell four decades ago. The political equation was a simple one: POW equals patriotic hero equals a fighting president. Before McCain walked down the long runway at St. Paul's Xcel Center, a baritone voice declared over the P.A., "When you've lived in a box .... you put your people first." Case closed.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

And for McCain, it was on to the final battle, the old soldier, faith-tested and faith-proved, accompanied by a stylish hockey mom representing small-town goodness -- against those whose mettle have not been tested, whose love of country has not been tested, whose America is rather different from the America of the Republican convention.

Tags: mccain

Why Palin's weaknesses may be irrelevant

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:41:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: And why Democrats (including me!) miss the point when they campaign against them. Thought-provoking! This clip just grazes the surface of a very important article.

Clip Source: files.tikkun.org

the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call "issues,"

The Republicans can't win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world

Our national political dialogue is fundamentally metaphorical, with family values at the center

Conservative family values are strict and apply via metaphorical thought to the nation: good vs. evil, authority, the use of force, toughness and discipline, individual (versus social) responsibility, and tough love

Palin is the mom in the strict father family

Yes, the McCain-Palin ticket is weak on the major realities. But it is strong on the symbolic dimension of politics that Republicans are so good at marketing

But such truths may nonetheless be largely irrelevant to this campaign. That is the lesson Democrats must learn

initial Democratic response to Palin

based on realities alone

indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years

Tags: palin

CNN asks hard questions about Palin, gets dodged

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:43:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Campbell Brown does her job, asking McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience. After many dodges, he finally lands on the fiction that she commands the Alaska National Guard and has military experience - but he can't name one Guard decision she's made. McCain later cancels scheduled interview with CNN.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: campbell brown, tucker bounds, mccain, palin, cnn

Palin on McCain's "objectionable" earmarks list

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:27:10 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin."

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Palin on McCain's "pork list"

Now this is embarrassing. It seems that John McCain's soulmate has also made his anti-earmark "pork list".

Three times in recent years, McCain's catalogs of "objectionable" spending have included earmarks for this small Alaska town, requested by its mayor at the time -- Sarah Palin.

Oops. But hey, it's not like Palin was the first Wasilla mayor to go after federal money, right?

Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor. She actively sought federal funds -- a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.

Tags: palin, earmarks

Factcheck: McCain tax ads "a pattern of deceit"

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:01:44 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "The ad is plain wrong about higher taxes on working families. In fact, Obama's economic plan would produce a tax cut for the majority of American households, with middle-income earners benefiting most"

Clip Source: www.factcheck.org

McCain's new ad puts another stitch in what we've called his pattern of deceit on Obama's tax plan. This one claims Obama and congressional Democrats plan to push forward "painful tax increases on working American families" and that they will bring about "years of deficits," "no balanced budgets" and "billions in new government spending."

The ad is plain wrong about higher taxes on working families. In fact, Obama's economic plan would produce a tax cut for the majority of American households, with middle-income earners benefiting most. As for "years of deficits," exactly the same claim could be made about McCain's program. It's unlikely either Obama or McCain would balance the budget, and both are projected to increase the debt by trillions.

Under Obama's plan

people (or couples) making between

$37,595 and $66,354 a year would see an average savings of $1,118

Under McCain's plan, on the other hand, those same individuals would save $325 on average — $793 less

a "pattern of deceit"

Tags: mccain, taxes, politics