Can we talk about issues now?

Just in case you don’t know why I will be voting Obama on November 4th… while McCain spews hatred and accusations, Obama is speaking on the issues of the day, specifically the economy.

Sen. Obama today (the bolding is mine, the words are his);

“I know these are difficult times. I know folks are worried. But I believe that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis because I believe in this country. Because this is the United States of America. This is a nation that has faced down war and depression; great challenges and great threats. And at each and every moment, we have risen to meet these challenges - not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans. With resolve. With courage.

We have seen our share of hard times. The American story has never been about things coming easy - it's been about rising to the moment when the moment is hard; about rejecting panicked division for purposeful unity; about seeing a mountaintop from the deepest valley. That's why we remember that some of the most famous words ever spoken by an American came from a President who took office in a time of turmoil - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Now is not the time for fear. Now is not the time for panic. Now is the time for resolve and steady leadership. We can meet this moment. We can come together to restore confidence in the American economy. We can renew that fundamental belief - that in America, our destiny is not written for us, but by us. That's who we are, and that's the country we need to be right now.

[…]

It's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that's not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious. The challenges are too great. The American people aren't looking for someone who can divide this country -- they're looking for someone who will lead it.

We're in a serious crisis -- now, more than ever, it is time to put country ahead of politics. Now, more than ever, it is time to bring change to Washington so that it works for the people of this country that we love.

I know my opponent is worried about his campaign. But that's not what I'm concerned about. I'm thinking about the Americans losing their jobs, and their homes, and their life savings. We can't afford four more years of the economic theory that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”

To Sen. McCain I say this; ‘it’s STILL the economy stupid.’ The World economy is going to hell in a hand-cart, and here you and your surrogates are, throwing accusations and innuendos about Mr. Obama rather than tackle the issues.

Game over Mr. McCain… game over.

John McCain’s ‘Al Gore Moment’?

We all know how fervidly the republicans screamed in 1999 when Al Gore said (read: implied) he invented the internet (McCain himself made fun of Al Gore back then).… well, Sen. McCain’s done it this time, implying that he invented WiFi, the Cell Phone, and the Blackberry.

No lie.

Yesterday McCain told scienceblogs.com; “Under my guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.”

Uh-huh…

Consider these examples of McCain’s ‘guiding hand’ from Daily Kos’ Devilstower, the emphasis’ are my own;

With the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Senate passed the first major revision to telecommunications law in 62 years which provided the foundation for much of the cell phone and Internet regulation over the next decade. The bill passed 81-18 and was signed into law by President Clinton. McCain voted against the act.

In 2002, McCain authored the "Consumer Broadband Deregulation Act of 2002" which eliminated the requirement of the 1996 law that telecommunication companies provide access to competitors. It didn't pass.

In 2003, the Internet Tax Freedom Act was passed, putting in place a moratorium on taxes for activities on the Internet. The bill had 11 cosponsors – McCain wasn't one of them. He did vote for the bill, but since it passed 97-3, that's definitely "guiding" with a small 'g.' Granted, this wasn't directly a bill about wireless, but since McCain doesn't seem to have authored any law on wireless technology, I'm having to search for connections.

Of pending legislation, McCain is not a sponsor of the "Connect the Nation Act" – though Senator Obama is. McCain is not a sponsor of Senator Rockefeller's call for a universal next generation broadband by 2015 – though Senator Obama is. And of course, McCain isn't a sponsor of the "Internet Freedom Act" that would ensure net neutrality – though Senator Obama is. That last is no surprise. McCain has repeatedly opposed net neutrality, saying that companies have a right to restrict speed or even limit access to sites "when you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment."

So, McCain's "guiding hand" seems to consist of opposing the legislation that laid the groundwork for the communications we have today, and authoring failed legislation designed to benefit big carriers. Of course, we should probably be glad that John McCain really didn't invent the cell phone or WiFi, otherwise we'd all be getting our wireless services from one monolithic company free to restrict our access to only the pages that pay for the privilege. And we'd all be using "Jitterbugs."

So his ‘guiding hand’ consisted of being one of 97 total votes for the Internet Tax Freedom Act that put a moratorium on taxes for activities on the Internet.

While we try and wrap our minds around how that constitutes helping to create WiFi, consider this from McCain’s top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin. While holding his Blackberry up in the air, Holtz-Eakin said; “He did this. […] Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce committee so you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”

Wow! A United States Senator is responsible for helping to create a product born in Canada… created in Canada... and founded using Canadian technology… now that’s talent and we should ALL be grateful to Sen. McCain for not only lending his ‘guiding hand’ in helping to create WiFi, the Blackberry and cell phones… lest we all be using cell phones the size of a small dog.

It’s so hard to express sarcasm in the written form.

Former FCC chairman Reed Hundt sees McCain’s contribution to society differently, telling ThinkProgress; “John McCain is so out of touch with America his economics adviser says he deserves credit for creating the Canadian company that invented the Blackberry. Message to Republicans: it’s American entrepreneurship our President is supposed to encourage.”

So… McCain doesn’t know how to use technology…admittedly doesn’t like technology… has to have his wife use technology for him… but he’s now taking credit for a bit of technology that changed our lives forever.

Interesting isn’t it that when Gore said that about the internet, the traditional media went agog and crucified him mercilessly…

I’ll be waiting for that to happen to McCain.

McCain staffer says something stupid (hard to believe, isn't it)

Just in case you had any delusions that Sen. McCain understands the world in which we live, here’s more proof that not only does HE not understand, but his surrogates (those that will get places of high importance in a McSame Administration) don’t either I present you this.

The man who assisted in the drafting of the McCain campaign’s health care plan (such as it is) believes that no American should be considered uninsured… and his use of logic, a term I use very loosely in this case, is fuzzy at best and incredibly idiotic at worse.

From today's Dallas Morning News; “But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain's health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.) […] So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime," Mr. Goodman said. "The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.”

So let me get his straight… by his logic, anyone who can get into a hospital emergency room is able to access health care, and therefore shouldn't be considered uninsured. In other words his solution to the health insurance crisis in this country is to simply re-define the word that causes the problem.

Lovely... now this isn’t the first time republicans have changed the definition of something in order to get the embarrassing numbers down as they did it to the definition of unemployed under President Nixon or maybe it was Ford… bah, they’re almost one in the same anyway.

It’s true that emergency rooms are not allowed to turn people who are in need of emergency medical care away, but the federal statute that designates that simply requires emergency room staff to stabilize people that come to their hospitals in need of urgent medical care. Meaning once they’re stabilized, the hospital is free to transfer or discharge them, no questions asked. Additionally, if you do go to an emergency room and need treatment, the hospital is still going to send you a bill as their ER services are not free, and if a patient doesn't pay, the hospital will sue.

Besides, our emergency rooms were not designed to be actual health care centers, they were designed for, imagine that; emergencies.

Add to that the fact that every medical professional would tell you that preventative health care not only costs a hell of lot less than waiting until a problem becomes so severe that a person has to go to the ER… but the impact of waiting on one’s personal health is monstrous and only exacerbates one’s medical maladies.

McCain and his cronies say there’s no healthcare crisis in this country because they themselves don’t have a problem with healthcare, which in their narrow, convoluted minds means no one in the country could possibly have a problem with healthcare.

McCain’s campaign apparently never saw the study that shows the U.S. is ranked 37th in the world for quality of health of its citizens.

You read that right… the United States is ranked 37th in the world for quality healthcare for its citizens… but according to McCain and his handlers… there’s no uninsured in the US.

Uninsured Americans are less likely to seek health care, which in turn means they are more likely to die because of a lack of insurance. An Institute of Medicine Report estimated there were 18,000 unnecessary adult deaths because of a lack of insurance while the Urban Institute estimates that 22,000 have died in 2006 for the same reason… yet the McCain campaign believes these people were “effectively insured.”

Talk about being out of touch.

Oh…and if you need more proof that a McCain presidency would mimic a Bush presidency… in July 2007, “President” Bush said; “I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

As President Clinton and Sen. Clinton have said over the last two days; "They want us to reward them for the failures of the last four years with four more years. The third time is not the charm”… “No way. No how. No McCain.”

UPDATE Not surprisingly, the McCain campaign is trying to distance itself from John Goodman, with a campaign spokesperson telling The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn that Goodman is “not an advisor” despite the Dallas Morning News reporting him to be one… and as recently as last month, the WSJ labeled Goodman as an “adviser to the McCain campaign” when he wrote an op-ed piece that fellated praised McCain’s health care plan.

Uh-huh…thanks for clearing that up guys.

I don't want to say I told you so... BUT

As I sit here wondering how the hell Karl Rove can ignore a subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Committee so he can discuss how he politicized the Justice Department… something came across my computer that further supports my post from yesterday: “the more often Sen. McCain opens his mouth, the better… as it gives a chance for people to see what he is really all about.”

Today, he showed his folly by responding to a question about Iran… or more specifically, the threat that Iran is towards the US.

McCain constantly spouts off about Iran and how they are “intent on acquiring nuclear weapons” while attacking Sen. Obama and Democrats in general, for supposedly not seeing the real threat posed by a nuclear Iran.

And following Iran’s missile testing earlier this week, McCain was at it again. Though this time, he was challenged on it by ABC’s Charlie Gibson, who interviewed McCain and asked if an Israeli strike against Iran would be “jusified” in light of their missile tests… McCain’s response; “I can’t know whether a strike would be justified because I don’t know the progress or the significance or the nature of the threat. I know the threat is growing because of the continued development of nuclear weapons.

Excuse me??? You say Iran is a threat… and yet you don’t even know what the nature of the threat is and then you try to trot out the ‘development of nuclear weapons’ fear-mongering again? I believe we have hard evidence and data from US intelligence agencies (NIE anyone?) that says they’re no longer developing nuclear weapons…

But since he claims to know what Iran is up to, perhaps the reason he isn’t sure of the nature of the threat is because he hasn’t had time to make it up yet.

Look, we all know that McCain has not done his research on many things… but the region containing Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan is the region that will command the next administration’s attention 99% of the time… and yet, he doesn’t know what their real threat is.

The more often McCain opens his mouth, the better…