Maine Owl

Tantamount to a call for Obama's assassination at a McCain/Palin rally:

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

H/T TPM.

Notes on the bombing of innocents

The "Bill Ayers issue" against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is now out in full bloom. Here was Republican veep candidate Palin yesterday:

Gov. Palin: There's been a lot of interest in what I read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today's New York Times, and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago. Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.' These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes. ...

[Barack Obama] is not a man who sees America as you and I do -- as the greatest force for good in the world.

So, guilt by association will be the McCain-Palin Hail Mary. Can't say I find that surprising.

But I believe there is a lot more to look at about this than its nature as a political attack. Especially ripe would be an examination of American use of war as an instrument of policy.

An old friend of Maine Owl put it like this:

In a televised interview last spring, Senator John McCain asked, "How can you countenance someone who was engaged in bombings that could have or did kill innocent people?"

What branch of the military did Mr McCain serve in??? WHAT DID THEY DO EVERY DAY DURING THE VIETNAM WAR? "ENGAGE IN BOMBINGS THAT COULD HAVE OR DID KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE." What does our air force currently do,well, we don't really know how often now, do we? Weekly? daily? hourly? "ENGAGE IN BOMBINGS THAT COULD HAVE OR DID KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE."

Whew, had to get that out. At least Bill Ayers has gone on to become an education prof and a powerful advocate in defense of children ...

Military bomber pilots often have caring post-war careers too, like serve in public office and run for president. Well, we respect their service, don't we. So, at some level, there is a moral milieu in which bombing innocent people under justifying euphemisms like "collateral damage" is regarded as a "force for good," the true-blooded American thing to do.

Here's my take. First, a quote:

Here is one of them, LCMDR John Sidney McCain, service number 624787 ... USS Oriskany, speaking of the treatment he has been receiving. (Male voice with American accent) I was a U.S. airman engaged in the crimes against the Vietnamese country and people. I had bombed their cities, towns, and villages and caused more injury even death for the people of Vietnam. After I was captured I was taken from a hospital in (?Da Nang) where I received very good medical treatment. ..."

That's from a Pentagon transcription of broadcast, Radio Hanoi, June 2, 1969.

Who is Palin? Air headed ditz? or gun-toting hockey mom copyright infringer (on Heart's "Barracuda")? Did she "recapture her image" last night?

I hate to have to post this


Maine 1st District Representative Tom Allen voted for the Wall Street bailout. In doing so, he voted for the biggest economic hosing the President George W. Bush Administration has ever devised. In doing so, he said Republican policies are okay, the policies of Susan Collins are okay after all, and the taxpayer just cleans up Republican messes. The vote said he even approved the top Bush henchman to be in charge.

Candidate Tom Allen could have made some hay against Senator Susan Collins by taking a real stand against her and Bush that the ad suggests he does. Alas, no. No alternative ideas from Tom. He joined the rush to approve the Bush economic takeover. Shameful.

Update: What Gerald said. I just got through listening to Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank repeat mantras of the phrase "protect the taxpayer" in a replay from the afternoon Capitol news conference. Who are they kidding? It's pathetic. (Gerald also pointed me to THIS very interesting report on the Treasury conference call for bailout analysts. What's happening inside is not reflected on the outside, that's for sure.) Meanwhile, here is Gerald's litany of Tom Allen's failing "Mr. Niceguy" program:

• Not challenging Collins as she cried, "Victim!" to the MoveOn.org ads.
• Not hammering Collins on her record of not investigating the fraud, theft and malfeasance that has defined the reconstruction of Iraq (a total that is not far from $700 billion).Not challenging Collins as she cried, "Victim!" to the MoveOn.org ads.
• Not hammering Collins on her record of not investigating the fraud, theft and malfeasance that has defined the reconstruction of Iraq (a total that is not far from $700 billion)
• Not challenging the lies of the anti-union and anti-EFCA ads until it was too late
• Not hammering Collins on her votes for the AUMF Iraq, the USA Patriot Act, tax cuts for the super wealthy, against habeas corpus protections (and explaining their import), retro-immunity for the telecoms that illegally spied on millions of Americans, and confirming to the SCOTUS John Roberts and Sam Alito.

It's a pretty serious indictment. We can add "not challenging the bailout when doing so was a perfect opportunity to re-energize voters for his candidacy--especially in Mike Michaud's district." Shameful, shameful, shameful.

Juan Cole has excellent goods

I will at this late hour just point out a whole aspect of the debate that bugged me. But first, in the best, most intense exchange, Obama nailed McCain for over the years not having very good judgment about Iraq:

Obama: And so John likes -- John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong.

What bugs me is that implicit here, according to Obama, is that he agrees with McCain that everything has gone swimmingly since 2007. Professor Cole disabuses that notion with references on Iraqi hospitals without elevators for the numerous new amputees, satellite pictures of dark, ethnically cleansed Sunni regions of Baghdad, along with Professor Cole's personal experience witnessing the plight of Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

What really struck me in all this is that neither McCain nor Obama seems to recognize the horrendous effect the Iraq invasion has had on the Iraqi people. For his part, Obama seems not to have any interest in the facts from Professor Cole's references about ethnic cleansing and refugees that refute "victory" through surge. Maybe the eye is off the ball and the Iraqis have $79 billion, but haven't they paid the worst cost? Why is it that Obama is loathe to go there, even though McCain's position could be undermined, while the American people could learn from the debate some of the real issues in Iraq?

Just kill me


Bangor news anchor evidently resembles America's Top High-Office Model finalist

Palin, Maine TV anchor look-alike get national attention
By Emily Burnham - BDN Staff - Saturday Sept. 20, 2008

Move over, Tina Fey: there’s a new Sarah Palin look-alike and she’s from Bangor.

Cindy Michaels, an anchor, reporter and producer for WVII ABC-7/Fox 22, has received both praise and flak for her striking resemblance to Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate. Michaels has long brown hair that she sometimes wears up in a style similar to Palin’s ...

I have no additional comment on the BDN story, except that you can start bludgeoning me NOW!

About a week ago, the Wall Street Journal had a story, "As Palin Exhibits Her Sense of Style, Fashion Firms Rush to Cash In."

It said Palin's "personal style has sparked a buying frenzy." The makers of Palin's Naughty Monkey peep-toe, 3-1/2-inch-heeled clubbing shoes that she likes to wear to important events--also worn by Paris Hilton--have apparently been swamped with orders.

Naturally, the narrative is about Obama's "celebrity" negatives. Again, just shoot me.

A friend from Alaska sent me the link for this protest against the war, and the savagery of Palinism. She included the following message with the link: "Don't give up hope. Alaskans know how to protest, too. I hope you can see the photos to get a full view of AK attitudes!"

Anti-Palin activists stage their own rally
MIDTOWN: Hundreds show up when word spreads over Internet.

By SEAN COCKERHAM
Published: September 14th, 2008

A crowd of anti-Sarah Palin protesters gathered in Midtown Anchorage soon after the Republican nominee for vice president left Alaska to resume campaigning in the Lower 48.

The Saturday protest in front of the Loussac Library appeared bigger than any Anchorage has seen in recent memory. The crowd looked to be in the high hundreds at least, and organizers said they counted 1,500. It included roughly 100 counter protesters supporting Palin. ...

Drill here! Drill now!

Interesting. The young, inexperienced, possibly corrupt, female governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is the pick of John McCain for his running mate on the Republican ticket.

I think the first video in THIS SET explains why and what the centerpiece of the Republican campaign will be this fall.

PALIN (with text "Drill! Drill! Drill! underneath): [McCain] ... eventually supporting ANWR opening. Obama is way off base on all that. I think that those politicians who don't understand that we need more domestic supply of energy to flow into our hungry markets, you know, they're living in La La Land.

Obama/Biden better be ready for this. She is completely disarming and very, very effective in this energy bit. She deftly deflected the fact that McCain is doing a hard flop against his previous environmentally protective position on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Obviously the Republicans are leading with the Newt Gingrich program and taking the offensive on fuel prices. So far, they have very effectively drilled the Democrats into a corner. The fuel prices quite simply are the most potent reality of the deep failure of the Bush Administration. Gingrich has turned this around into the fault of the Democrats!

"Drill here, drill now, pay less" is a simple, appealing slogan. To unpack it requires at least ten minutes of explanation. The typical U.S. voter simply is not equipped to view the sloganeering with any skepticism. The production/consumption numbers and geopolitics of world oil simply do not suggest domestic oil drilling is any kind of route to U.S. energy independence. But the typical consumer does not see this when turning over a regular slug of cash at the local gas mart.

The Democrats have tried to inject some reality into the drilling debate. But they too promote "energy independence." I'd go as far as to say that in the long-run this is a myth. Every projection of future oil production suggests that the Middle East rapidly will become more important as a source for the U.S. and every other oil consumer no matter how much extra drilling happens on U.S. soil and in U.S. waters. The domestic drilling slogans offer no solution. The Democrats better not run away from making that clear.

People who think this veep choice automatically loses it for McCain are wrong. If the Democrats aren't careful, this woman will have them for lunch. She's capable of launching absolutely devastating attacks in what is lined up as a Republican mockery campaign. She'll be well briefed and very difficult to paint as an air-headed former beauty queen. In a match with Biden, do not expect a gaffe from her.

Still, it is the Democrats campaign to lose. If they play it right, the presence of Palin on the Republican ticket does undermine the argument that Obama is "not ready."

Do people know this?

Here is a handy item from the NPR Fresh Air page from Tuesday's good program featuring an interview with Jonathan Oberlander, author of The Political Life of Medicare:

Comparing The Plans

McCain: He would replace the current tax-free status of health insurance coverage provided by employers with refundable tax credits worth $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to help purchase insurance. McCain would allow the sale of insurance policies across state lines, rather than state by state, as is currently the case.

Obama: He would create a new plan for those who lack other access to coverage, as well as a National Health Insurance Exchange to help pool the purchasing power of small businesses and individuals. Obama would also offer a combination of subsidies and tax credits to help make coverage more affordable. He would mandate health insurance coverage for children, but not adults. Obama would create a federally sponsored health insurance plan, similar to Medicare, that would compete with private plans for those under age 65.

If the McCain plan were to be enacted in this form, a lot of people would get very rude shocks in their paychecks: huge increases in their top-line income, but even larger deductions for taxes + premiums resulting in lower take-home pay.

I know of a local public agency where the full-time staff would each see under McCain a net loss of in take-home pay under this plan because the $5,000 credit would not quite cover the increase in taxes. Of course, not everybody gets such a full-paid plan in a state with premiums as expensive as they are in Maine. But workers who have struggled to win good benefits will be the ones hurt the worst by McCain. Furthermore, as premiums escalate, the credit would begin to fall further short in covering the tax increase.

Why aren't the Democrats singing these facts about the McCain plan and the obvious superiority of the Obama plan from the highest mountain?

One last question, does McCain's Maine co-chair, Senator Susan Collins, support this quite radical McCain plan?

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 04:35 PM


Dennis Kucinich (OH-10): "It's Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.

"Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president's oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq's oil.

"Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

"If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children's inheritance and hollow out our economy.

"We can't afford another Republican administration. Wake up, America. The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America. The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

"Wake up, America. The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America. They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America. Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

"Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost 5 to 10 trillion dollars.

"This administration can tap our phones. They can't tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can't open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline and electricity skyrockets. They skillfully played our post-9/11 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Every day we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

"Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up. Up with the rights of workers. Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

"Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden.

"Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America."

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history - knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me.

Certainly I liked the speech Michelle Obama delivered at the Democratic National Convention Monday night. She's a huge credit to the Obama operation.

The speech was very personal. It focused on family and personal relations and her late father's struggle against a debilitating disease. The hard times were overcome through gritty individual perseverance of folks who "weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut," and "smiling and laughing" all the while.

Look, I'm not really going to criticize her story. I liked the speech and she was brilliant. But I do want to discuss the manner in which she dips into the upcoming forty-fifth anniversary (this Thursday) of the March on Washington and the Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech. She cites not one word of King. Maybe Senator Obama will do so in his nomination acceptance speech on Thursday, I don't know.

Even though Michelle does say that getting to "what our world should look like" has required "people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had," and that "we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be," she avoids dwelling on the act of people organizing and uniting for the cause of justice. She does not cite any sources of injustice either. Just what is it that makes the world not look as it should?

King had an awful lot to say about that on August 28, 1963:

MLK: In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Forty-five years later that promissory note is still marked in default for de facto segregated, vastly under-funded communities all over America while foreign wars rage on and corporate ripoffs flourish. I'll be watching the Democrats to see if there is even the slightest sense left in 'em to address any of this. I have my doubts. It seems like to be on-message, Democrats must eschew mention of economic starvation of poor communities and the now hyper-aggravated divide of society's resources into the pockets of the rich.

The real McCain


Jaw dropping: How many mansions? Can he possibly care about ordinary people in trouble?

There is a story out today that's had me ROFL: McCain Doesn't Remember How Many Houses He Owns.

Poor old, senile guy.

At that link, there also is surprisingly good ad in response from Obama. If the McCain campaign wants to play a Rovian script attacking Obama as an un-American, un-patriotic "celebrity" (a "critical psychological, character-based foundation to support a very disparate set of accusations," according to a posting at The Democratic Stratigist), I think that McCain's mansions are totally fair game. Good for Obama in getting a response out so quick.

See also HERE for an entertaining trip around to McCain's residences.

They must see the damage possible from the houses gaffe because the McCain campaign has responded with the POW card: "'This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison,' spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post."

Okey doke. If that's how they're going to deal with everything, isn't it fair to start questioning if the POW years had a lasting negative effect on McCain's fitness for high office when he can't even remember how many mansions he has?

Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama is sinking in the polls like a rock. She will be perceived as the strongest choice to boost him over the widest area while rekindling the primary fires of last spring. Plus, for some strange reason I can't fathom, she'll be seen as the "experience" Obama needs at his side for dealing with the mean and nasty Russians now suddenly focused in the frame and contributing to McCain's rise. Of course, that perception of her "experience" is based on the Bill Clinton presidency and her cultivation of a Thatcheresque pose.

Treat this post as b.s.

"Taxman"


Obama better come up with an answer

"Higher taxes, higher gas prices, economic disaster."

Whoa. This is some powerful stuff McCain is peddling. Ads with a message very similar to this one are running in southern Maine, probably because of the proximity to swing state New Hampshire. It's traditional anti-tax technique coupled with deft transferrance of the harms of decades of Republicanism away from the Republicans. Basically the idea is to hang the last eight years around Obama's neck. Ridiculous? Of course.

The gas prices actually constitute a huge levy on the public for Bush's wars. But will Obama attack back in kind with a strong enough counter-message that it is actually McCain who wants to continue the wars ad infinitum? I haven't seen it yet.

Obama has tried to explain that his economic plan intends a mild restructuring of taxes so the rich pay a few cents more. That would be a step in the right direction. But he better get out there with a strong "fairness" message while drawing a picture of McCain as purveyor of endless war. Otherwise, these ads will set in and Obama will have no hope of shaking enough voters free from the grip of the Republican confusion machine.

More commentary just out describes the weakness of the recent Obama campaign in the face of this Republican onslaught: Progressives Sound Alarm About Obama Campaign. With McCain so inconsistent and so lacking in solutions, the disturbing trend is that, according to Josh Marshall, "The lack of any consistent lines of attack against McCain is becoming palpable."

I couldn't agree more. For evidence about what is happening, go look at the erosion over at the 538 poll tracker. Now the fellow who runs that site is arguing that Obama has a great ground game and that somehow shows the campaign is also great. However, the erosion in the polls is unmistakable. If this is turning into the August disaster that was the Swiftboated Kerry campaign of four years ago remains to be seen. But if I was hoping beyond all hope for an Obama presidency, I'd be worried.

He must think the taking of Iraq was just a natural gift of God:



One of the hardest things for Americans to accept is that our country used its power to invade, conquer, occupy and eviscerate someone else's country while causing untold suffering of millions of its people. In the mind of McCain, this taking simply does not register as an invasion. H/T Think Progress.