Letters to the Editor
rollotomasi
Published Letters: 187
-
Why aren't the Obama campaign and the Democrats
[Read the article: The mighty, scary press corps ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]screaming bloody murder about the kid glove treatment?
Palin is being protected and rewarded for her lack of heft on issues important to us here in the Lower 49. Conversely, those who were vetted the 18-month grind of a primary campaign are being punished.
Erroneous information is part of any vetting and investigation in progress. Thomas Eagleton's fiasco in 1972 was accompanied by a lot of mis-information, and that revolved around only one aspect of Eagleton's past.
Since the Republicans sprung the Alaska governor on the nation at the 10th or 11th hour and both party and governor have been somewhat less than forthcoming about her past, it is disingenuous at best to complain about erroneous information or blur it with the facts to make it out to be a smear campaign. They have no right to complain about a vetting in process that will invariably come up with a few clinkers, particularly while they are doing their best to stiff-arm it.
-
Media dutifully plays along with McCain strategy of preemptive attacks based on fantasy
[Read the article: New heights of stupidity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The McCain pattern of preemptive attacks on Obama have become a pretty reliable predictor of the nature of the heat that is about to come their way. McCain's major reach on the Lipstick/Pig thing that has been pretty quickly and roundly ridiculed (and that McCain himself used in referring to Hillary Clinton's plan) @
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/215162.php
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/215211.php
makes one wonder whether there could there possibly be something sexist, racist or both coming down the pike toward McCain, or Palin perhaps?
Maybe its just me, but it McCain seems to launch these fantasy-based attacks on Obama on the same themes/issues where bad news seems about to come McCain’s way to blunt the effect of the negative news that is about to come down on McCain. By getting the Obama fictions out in front like this, McCain turns an issue that should be a negative for him into a political spat where Obama is simply getting back at McCain. Glenn has noted how the press generally fails to distinguish the fantasy-based from the reality-based.
We’ve seen this with other charges McCain has made about Obama: Obama’s elitism (preceding McCain’s houses); Obama selfishly more interested in winning an election over serving his country (preceding - you pick it - Palin pick?); Obama changing his tune on Iraq (preceding Bush administration “agreeing” to a time line); Obama’s earmarks (preceding revelations that Palin has been lying about her refusal of earmarks). A theory to be sure, but let’s see what comes down the pike along racist/sexist lines just for fun.
-
Rewarding screw-ups
[Read the article: The complete (though ever-changing) elite consensus over the financial collapse]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see the crowd that went apoplectic over a $7 billion increase to a program helping out children with medical needs (SCHIP), to the point of party leaders publicly harassing a 12-year old recovering from a brain stem injury and his family who received program benefits, is now telling us to calm down about handing $700 billion dollars to Treasury Secretary Paulson to help out “needy” corporations as he sees fit. These corporations were not innocent victims of an auto accident; they were provided a regulatory environment that allowed them to outsmart themselves and we are being asked to fork over $2,300 per citizen on blind faith to cover for their recklessness.
And Paulson is not worthy of such blind faith. Wall Street investment interests had prevailed upon Paulson to be regulated less stringently and Paulson responded with a study to overhaul the financial regulatory system. Paulson’s plan provided for further deregulation of the financial industry by defanging state regulatory agencies and the SEC and limiting their abilities to prevent problems in favor of expanding Treasury Dept. powers to step in only after problems occur. Paulson also imprudently chose to release his plan shortly after the Bear Stearns bailout, which Michael Greenberger, in a Sep. 17 discussion on NPR’s Fresh Air from WHYY, compared to the Defense Secretary releasing a plan to restructure the military in the middle of WW II while trying to defeat the Axis powers.
Glenn’s comparisons of Bernanke and Paulson’s words about the financial crisis in their meeting with congressional leaders to Bush/Cheney’s previous exaggerations regarding Iraq’s WMD and growing terrorism threat in order to prod Congress to cede more and more of their powers are spot on.
Whether or not we truly have a crisis is irrelevant to the fact that this proposed legislation is a joke, totally unacceptable. It is vaguely written to provide broad powers (and a freighterload of money) to a Treasury Secretary without useful oversight. In fact, the proposal almost perfectly parallels the Wild West approach regarding financial institutions and borrowers that got us into this mess in the first place: just hand the money over and the heck with checking financial backgrounds and needs of the parties, following up on progress in any meaningful way, or any other form of due diligence.
I say almost perfectly parallels because this is not a loan for the taxpayers - we have no chance of getting this money back. As pointed out in a piece at Calculated Risk, @
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/09/ny-times-makes-funny.html
some (including NY Times reporters) are making the argument that the taxpayers stand a chance of recouping some or all of the $700 billion. As the legislation is written, Paulson could plow the proceeds of any sales of securities back into more bailouts - Paulson is effectively allowed to piss away a net $700 billion regardless of the amount of any returns. The legislation also does not spell out the additional costs (personnel, contracts, etc.) to carry out the program.
Hillary Clinton has a several proposals that are worth a good look @
http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=303208&&
(h/t John Cole @ Balloon Juice, believe it or not.)
------------
And, belatedly (Hurricane Ike didn’t do a number on just Texas):
Good to see you back, GoodCelery!