McCain: Only As Strong As His Weakest Lobbyist

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeJohn McCain showed his true strips (again) last week when he came out against the G.I. Bill on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend. He has a history of ignoring the needs of the military even though he was a prisoner of war. One would think he would have a firm grasp of the needs of the military but as my friend, Christine Hall, pointed out, "John McCain can easily be talked out of anything." That had to be the best description of John McCain I have ever heard. The SEIU published a research report exploring John McCain's health care record, policies and campaign plans. From AAP: As the research shows, McCain’s latest ideas for health care would actually make obtaining coverage more difficult for the average working family and cause health care costs to go up for millions of hardworking Americans. Deborah Roberson, a child care worker in Erie, PA, has diabetes and is currently uninsured. Under the McCain plan, she would not be guaranteed coverage because she has a pre-existing condition. Her net pay last year was $14,300 and her out of pocket health care costs were $3,000 – over 20 percent of her income. “I live in fear of getting sick,” said Roberson. “I have to stretch my medication. Sometimes I take one diabetes pill instead of the two my doctor prescribed. God forbid I should have to go to the hospital. I need health insurance so that I can stay healthy and take care of myself, my family and these kids. John McCain has no plan to ensure that people like me get the care we need.” Good grief! How in the world can John McCain believe a health care plan that maintains the idiotic pre-existing condition position? It is easy, he was talked out of it. If you are a woman, it gets worse. From HuffPo, Since 1983, in votes in the House and the Senate (where he has served since 1987), McCain has cast 130 votes on abortion and other reproductive-rights issues. 125 of those votes were anti-choice. Among his voting lowlights: He has repeatedly voted to deny low-income women access to abortion care except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life (although McCain is now wavering on trying to put these exceptions into the party platform). He voted to shut down the Title X family-planning program, which provides millions of women with health care services ranging from birth control to breast cancer screenings. He voted against legislation that established criminal and civil penalties for those who use threats and violence to keep women from gaining access to reproductive health clinics. He voted to uphold the policy that bans overseas health clinics from receiving aid from America if they use their own funds to provide legal abortion services or even adopt a pro-choice position. Of his anti-choice voting record, McCain has said, "I have many, many votes and it's been consistent," proudly adding: "And I've got a consistent zero from NARAL" through the years. And last month he told Chris Matthews: "The rights of the unborn is one of my most important values." What's more, McCain has made it very clear that if he becomes president he will appoint judges in the Scalia, Roberts, Alito mold. His big judicial speech earlier this month was filled with coded buzz words that make it clear that, if given the chance, he'd replace 88-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens with an anti-choice Justice who would tip the scales against Roe v Wade. Throw in an additional anti-choice replacement for the 75-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and you can kiss the right to choose good-bye for a long, long time. Why John McCain is so interested in my wife's uterus is beyond me. McCain's problems are deeper than that of course. These are probably not McCain's beliefs, they are the beliefs of his lobbyists and special interest pals. John McCain is nothing more blank sheet of paper where the highest bidder gets to write down their commands for McCain to follow. He has been following orders for years and can't get enough when he figured out there was real money in it. John McCain cannot seem to think for himself. He has to look to one of his moneyed superiors to tell him what to do. When he takes his 3AM phone call, a lobbyist will probably answer for him what to do based on THEIR interests, not the interests of the American people and not what is in the best interest of the United States of America. Simply put, John McCain is only as strong as his weakest lobbyist. SPECIAL REQUEST FOR TCD FANS: The San Francisco Chronicle is pondering the addition of new cartoons for their paper - a process that seems to be initiated by Darren Bell, creator of Candorville (one of my daily reads - highly recommended). You can read the Chronicle article here and please add your thoughts to the comments if you wish. If anything, put in a good word for Darren and Candorville. I am submitting Town Called Dobson to the paper for their consideration. They seem to have given great weight to receiving 200 messages considering Candorville. I am asking TCD fans to try to surpass that amount. (I get more than that many hate mails a day, surely fans can do better?) This is not a race between Darren and I, it is a hope that more progressive strips can be represented in the printed press of America. So if you read the San Francisco Chronicle or live in the Bay Area (Google Analytics tell me there are a lot of you), please send your kind comments (or naked, straining outrage) to David Wiegand at his published addresses below. If you are a subscriber, cut out your mailing label and staple it to a TCD strip and include it in your letter. candorcomment@sfchronicle.com or David Wiegand Executive Datebook Editor The San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103

I no longer fear the Kucinich Revolution: Part 3

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge In Parts One and Two, I discussed the support Kucinich has and the irrational fear also associated with electing Kucinich. Today, I want to focus on the secondary soundbite I have heard over the last few weeks about Kucinich. The Kucinich critics to have their work cut out for them because they need to go back THIRTY YEARS to find something to complain about. Their soundbite is "he drove Cleveland into bankruptcy." This, it turns out, is a lie. It is a Halliburton straw man with a touch of Sopranos level intrigue. Dennis Kucinich started out as the Mayor of Cleveland in 1977 - the youngest Mayor of a large city in America. The city was hip deep in trouble with it's finances and crime. Not to mention, when Kucinich was sworn in, Cleveland was in one of its worst snow storms with winds of over 100 miles per hour - a sign of things to come. He made good appointments and bad appointments for his administration and one of those, the Chief of Police, Richard Hongisto, proved to be real bad. The fiasco went so terribly wrong that a recall election was called and Kucinich won - maintaining control of the failing city. One of his campaign promises was to not sell Cleveland's public electricity utility, Cleveland Public Power to Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company - a corrupt company with a stack of federal violations of anti-trust laws held against it. When Kucinich got in office, the mafia figured out that this young Mayor was actually going to keep his word and NOT sell Cleveland Public Power to Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company so the mafia put a hit out for the murder of Kucinich. Yep, Dennis Kucinich was the target of mafioso assassins, but that was nothing compared to the EXTREME pressure of the city council and local banks had placed on Kucinich to sell the utility. In the end, Kucinich still said no. How many times have we wished for that tenacity in our politicians when dealing with Halliburton? The main city creditor, Cleveland Trust, ignored all of Kucinich's debt restructuring plans and placed the city in default of payment. Here is the kicker - the bank's board had seven members who were on the payroll of Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and they were also on that company's board. The collusion was right out of the Cheney Play Book. The bank was a major shareholder in CEI and thus the sale of the city's municipal light utility would have benefited the bank, not the citizens of Cleveland. And again, Kucinich stood his ground. He put the decision to the people, vote to sell to CEI or vote for a .5% tax increase. Cleveland voted for higher taxes. Corporate interests lost and remarkably, the mafia recalled the assassin. Cleveland never went into bankruptcy and the loan was paid and would have been paid if CEI and Cleveland Trust weren't involved in a conspiracy to rob the citizens of Cleveland of almost a third of a billion dollars, in 1970's money. CEI was later acquired by FirstEnergy, the company was responsible for the 2003 blackout. Cleveland Public Power is still cranking out the watts to the city of Cleveland. So that is the story, Kucinich is guilty of not bowing to Big Energy and ignored the deployment of assassins just to keep a campaign promise. Here is my question, which of the "leading candidates" in this race; Clinton, Obama or Edwards would have withstood that kind of pressure? Is it any wonder Ohio keeps sending Kucinich back to Congress? They know which side he is on.

The Three Stages of Republican Corruption

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeGeorge Bush's War God must have been watching over Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts yesterday when he had a seizure on a lakeside dock. With all that water surrounding Roberts, just imagine the heart-wrenching agony the nation would have went through if God had made Roberts spaz out in the direction of the water... just a few steps more and we would have had a full-fledged drowning. Just a few tiny steps... maybe three tops. Thankfully that didn't happen. Now he can still be tried for lying to Congress about his health. That said, it lead me to wonder if there was a pattern to all of this - to the exposure of corruption within the GOP. First you need to start with The Foaming Of The Mouth - total unhinged rants against liberals, homosexuality, Paganism at the same time praising Bush like he was Allah, including facing Crawford and praying five times a day. We have seen this with most, if not all of the recent GOP scandals. Mark Foley was "a champion for children against online predators" only to be caught chasing down young boys on Instant Messenger. Ted Haggard was yelling and screaming about the evils of homosexuality while being freaked on meth and snogging male prostitutes. The next stage is The Outing. Recently, Louisanna Senator Vitter was caught with a slew of hookers from DC to New Orleans and just last night Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (Mister Bridge to Nowhere) had his house ransacked by Federal Agents collecting evidence of tax evasion, bribery and corruption. Stevens was one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, defender of pork in Congressional funding bills and who would have guessed all of those construction projects would have garnered him some payola? And Vitter was one of those "liberals are destroying the family" guys while at the same time he was probably spending his nights in the French Quarter screaming "whose you fucking Daddy now" with a triple nipple butt-plug firmly implanted. The last stage has to be The Resurrection. After the Republican in question leaves jail, divorce court or rehab, they go into a "time of solitude to contemplate their actions" (never to beg forgiveness) only to appear months later on the talk show circuit exclaiming their persecution was politically motivated, putting forth how no one else goes to jail over these issues or maybe how, technically, no law was broken. From that point, their career may drift toward a hefty book deal, radio show and if it was a particularly sordid scandal, they will end up with a news analyst deal for Fox News to comment on what happens when we catch US Representative Howard Coble, in the Well of the House, blowing a horse.

Who will step up?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge The list of do-nothing Democrats gets longer and longer every day we are in Iraq. In 2006, Americans sent a powerful message with their vote to end the war in Iraq. Now that the Democrats are in control of both halves of Congress, we are still in Iraq. We will be in Iraq for the foreseeable future. Bush has even said it will be his predecessor that brings the troops home. He has also embraced a “South Korea” scenario where we NEVER leave Iraq. Since the 2006 election, even MORE Americans see the Iraq invasion as a horrible mistake and want our troops brought home and support such legislation. Still, we remain in Iraq. We don’t even have a withdrawal plan and this shouldn’t be surprising. We had no plan going into Iraq, why should we expect BushCo to have one for coming OUT. It is time to STOP enabling Democrats and START making them vote for US, not their corporate contributors. The people of the 11th District may have voted to put Shuler in Congress, but it was a national effort of progressive bloggers and small donations from all over the country that paid for the ads, the mailers - the whole campaign. But Congressmen like Shuler should be made aware of just how tenuous their hold of their Congressional seat is. If he keeps voting the same way as Elizabeth Dole, I will do all I can to support his challengers in the 2008 Primaries. In fact, any Democrat that keeps a voting record akin to Elizabeth Dole’s needs to be replaced. My question to you is, who will step up?

Who isn’t selling us down river?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge Where is what Wikipedia has to say on fascism: Fascism is associated by many scholars with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, a powerful, dictatorial leader who portrays the nation, state or collective as superior to the individuals or groups composing it. First off, our government has sold us off to the highest corporate bidder. No longer are the needs of We The People met, but the needs of the Corporation are set higher than the individual. Big Oil has attacked democracy by price gouging, the insistence of gross over consumption and lobbying to prevent alternative fuels from coming to market. Why bring about a hydrogen economy - a renewable resource, when over $90 trillion in fossil fuel is still in the ground? Profit Over People should be the official tag line for the healthcare industry. Most drugs today are either wholly funded or partially funded by the US taxpayers, yet these medical discoveries and patents are not considered owned by We The People, nor does the US Treasury see any windfall from these outrageous profits from medical and pharmaceutical research. If the taxpayers finance the development, the drugs should be generic - right off the bat. The military industrial complex is one of the worst. HALF of our non-discretionary budget goes to funding war and the preparation of war. Instead of using that money to buy off a dictator a week or bring peace via diplomatic channels, we build new nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction that we block other countries from NOT developing. If we used half of our defense budget to buy off dictators, would could wipe out war on this planet in just a few months. That is how Bill Clinton controlled North Korea - the good old fashion bribe. God love him.

Mr. Bush, your party is jumping ship without you.

click to enlarge You are in trouble when George Will and William F. Buckley begin to think not only is Bush's foreign policy strategery flawed, but it is so horrid, it has the chance to sink the Republican Party back to where it was during the Great Depression. George Will from ABC's This Week: They do not want to have, as they had in 2006, another election on Iraq. George, it took 30, 40 years for the Republican Party to get out from under Herbert Hoover. People would say, "Are you going to vote for Nixon in '60?" "No, I don't like Hoover." The Depression haunted the Republican Party. This could be a foreign policy equivalent of the Depression, forfeiting the Republican advantage they've had since the '68 convention of the Democratic Party and the nomination of [George] McGovern. The advantage Republicans have had on national security matters may be forfeited. And from Buckley's column (courtesy thesaurus link) : The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60% of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq. Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats' attempt to force Mr. Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will veto the bill, of course, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people's laws, opposes the war. If Christopher Hitchens ever leaves the plantation, you might as well order the tombstone for the GOP.