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February, 2009:

A Second Look | Officials: Obama sets Aug. 2010 as Iraq end date

Feb 27th, 2009
by Tom.
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via Officials: Obama sets Aug. 2010 as Iraq end date.

WASHINGTON — A substantial number of the roughly 100,000 U.S. combat troops to be pulled out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, will remain in the war zone through at least the end of this year to ensure national elections there go smoothly, senior Obama administration officials say.

(snip) The potential size of that remaining force doesn’t please leaders of Obama’s own Democratic Party, who had envisioned a fuller withdrawal.

(snip) Republican Sen. John McCain, who lost the presidential election to Obama, offered his support for the plan Friday.

“I think the plan is significantly different than the plan Obama had during the campaign,” said McCain, referring to Obama’s campaign pledge to pull combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office if possible.

There. Finally. I’m down to the part that I wanted to address.

(Ahem) No. It. Is. Not. Significantly different. Just longer by 3 months.

Here’s the rub. John McCain is still being interviewed by the media despite his obvious and repeated devotion/marriage to the George Bush-trickle-down-Phil Gramm-deregulation ideology that got us into this crises in the first place.

When are the media organizations going to at least begin to fix the blame for this mess? I would jump and shout and run around in circles if the media said just once that the Republicans are to blame for this fiasco.

And besides, who gives two hoots what John McCain thinks?

Not Arizona. McCain may get a strong challenge from the right in the Arizona republican primary. Rumor has it that J.D. Hayworth, a popular right-wing nut-job radio host may run. Challenges from the right scare the bejesus out of incumbent Republicans. That’s why they take such a hard far-right-wing conservative stance when microphones are pushed in their faces. They don’t want to look less right-wing than their challenger.

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A Second Look | Republicans Fighting Back Against Bigger Government Spending

Feb 26th, 2009
by Tom.
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Michael Steele, RNC Chairman wrote:

Republicans Fighting Back Against Bigger Government Spending


From: Michael Steele, RNC Chairman [ecampaign@gop.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:58 AM
To: Tom
Subject: Republicans Fighting Back Against Bigger Government Spending

Dear Tom,

This morning, Governor Jindal and I continued our party’s fight for reform as the Democrats proposed more wasteful spending and bigger government.

In case you missed it, I hope you take a moment to watch Governor Jindal’s appearance on NBC’s Today Show this morning. As he did in the Republican address last night, Governor Jindal laid out the differences between Republicans and Democrats.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisianna


Another email today from the GOP. I don’t mind them since they keep me abreast of what’s on today’s spin cycle. It looks like Michael Steele is flaunting Gov. Jindal as som e kind of national hero, when everyone including FOX News, is reporting that the rebuttal speech was a dud. The Punditry’s responses are summed up here. And more at Greg Sergeant’s blog here. The critics are everywhere you look, except Rush Limbaugh. He’s out there spinning up Jindal for all he’s worth.

Get this: Steele is touting Jindal’s words as if they alone are the answer to the Republican Party’s doldrums. But, all the pundits are saying that Jindal’s rebuttal was a missed opportunity to define the Republican platform. So, the Republican Party is parading Jindal around the talking head shows anyway, no matter what he said in the rebuttal and and never mind that his performance stunk.

The real clincher in today’s email is that Steele is touting Jindal’s words as it they are gold when, in fact, they make absolutely no sense. Jindal says, “We think it’s more important to get the private sector moving rather than just spending government money.” What Jindal is saying here is why have a spending bill when we really need jobs. (?) Conversely, he’s saying that is is more important to create jobs than spend money. That’s great if were possible. His answer to the crises? Cut corporate taxes.

This makes no sense when history and mathematics proves this to be the wrong approach. And besides, tax cuts and spending both effect the budget by reducing cash on hand, so basically they are the same thing.

No only have corporate tax cuts been ineffective as an immediate economic stimulus, tax cuts are the worst investment for the long run. We get much more bang for our bucks in the stimulus department by spending on unemployment and food stamps and infrastructure. We cannot continue to keep the corporate fat cats afloat and hope that some of it trickles down to the physically hungry masses. We’ve tried that for the last twenty-five years and it has sadly taken that long to understand how stupid we were for following Reagan.

Even though they are squarely on the wrong side of history and they angrily push their agenda anyway, the Republicans really have no room to complain. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains the largest tax cuts in the history of the United States.

,,,,,,,,,

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A Second Look | Robert Creamer: Obama and the Revival of Responsibility – or – What Obama Did to the Republicans Last Night

Feb 25th, 2009
by Tom.
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via Robert Creamer: Obama and the Revival of Responsibility

Obama reminded America [during his address to a joint meeting of Congress] that his predecessors had squandered a fiscal surplus to enrich the wealthiest two percent of Americans with tax breaks. They refused to invest in the education and health care of our children. They endangered the future of our climate and planet to allow energy companies to engorge themselves with profit. And they jeopardized the peace of the world to satisfy their longing for empire.

And they sat there with their arms folded across their chests stubbornly refusing to take the blame for any of it, as a child would do when confronted with the facts. He was even booed by them when he spoke of slashing earmarks from the budget and cutting waste such as no-bid and cost-plus contracts from defense spending. These are the men and women who flatter themselves by claiming to be the “loyal opposition”. The only thing they are truly loyal to is the Republican party -  no matter how out of sync with America they have become.

They promoted hate and fear. Senators and Representatives spread anti-Muslim sentiments across the media and into the homes of people already fearful of the future in light of the 9/11 attack. They influenced millions upon millions of people to confuse hate and xenophobia with patriotism and pride.

The Republicans booed the President as if they still had some moral hill to stand on, some small step-stool of an ideal that they can climb and wave their little flag of trickle-down Reaganism and Phil Gramm deregulation. Ignorance abounds over there. Republicans march on oblivious to the burned out ruins of right-wing neo-liberalism that surrounds them. They will stand and boo as if their world is as bright as silver, as if their cause is new and smart -  in front of cameras! But when it is over, on the drive home with their wives, they will quietly acknowledge with a sigh that the once raging fire of their laissez-faire ideals that once burned as hot as the sun for so long are now black as soot and are cold and dead as ash.

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