The Political Voices of Women

Here is a guest post by community member Deb Della Piana from Turn Left.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

It’s election season, and I’m not about to let up on the McCain-Palin ticket. If I put these two at the larval stage, I’m giving them too much credit. To show that I’m not just a one-issue voter when it comes to McCain and Palin, the issue of women’s rights will not play into the article (but only this one time). I’ve done that article before, and there are other reasons I’d never vote for this ticket.

We already have people in government who believe they are above the law (one resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue right now) and it looks like McCain would like to add one more. Initially, Sarah Palin said she would cooperate voluntarily with the ongoing abuse of power investigation against her. Suddenly, the Alaska legislators are under pressure to wait until after the election to continue the investigation, and her husband is now going to ignore the subpoena he has received. I wonder if he’s getting pointers from campaign advisor Karl Rove about how best to ignore a subpoena and get away with it. It doesn’t take much in America these days, particularly if you’re an elected official. We’ve lowered the bar here to the point where we should all be doing the limbo.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O’Callaghan is falsely accusing the supporters of Barack Obama of controlling the investigation. The fact is that the investigation was recommended prior to Palin’s selection by a bi-partisan Legislative Council, the vast majority of whom were Alaska Republicans. There’s no way this investigation should be delayed until after the election. If McCain chose this woman as a running mate with full knowledge of the accusations against her (and he says he knew from the beginning), then let the chips fall where they may.

McCain wants to distract, not inform. If he distracts, you may not learn that his plan is to privatize and cut Social Security approximately one percent per year, along the lines of the proposed Bush plan. Workers who retire ten years after the McCain plan is put in place would see a ten percent reduction in benefits from the very beginning.

Next on the McCain-Palin hit list is the nation’s health care system. Their plan would effectively dismantle the employer-based coverage that protects most American families by converting health care benefits into income on which employees would have to pay taxes. The idea is to force millions of Americans into the non-group market where costs are high and services are limited. Benefits that millions now have would be lost. This is what the Republicans call the ‘free market’ system, much like the one currently bringing down Wall Street at the taxpayers’ expense.

John McCain’s confusion about who’s who in the world continues to embarrass. This from a candidate supposedly superior to Barack Obama in the foreign policy field. When asked if he would commit to a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, McCain refused. Apparently, McCain thought Zapatero was a Latin American autocrat. Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s foreign policy advisor, denied it was yet another McCain gaffe, but rather an intentional policy position with regard to Spain. Why would McCain refuse to commit to a meeting with a Democratic NATO ally with 1,000 troops serving in Afghanistan? Either McCain is intent on hiding his confusion from the public or he is upset (as is President Bush) that Spain pulled its troops from Iraq in 2004. Someone should point out to both George Bush and John McCain that there sometimes are repercussions when other nations find they’ve been deliberately lied to.

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Dear Readers,

If the last few days have left you with the same feelings that you had during the run up to the Iraq War you’re definitely not alone.

Remember the WMDs that posed an imminent threat to America?

Remember the statements that implied that the Iraqi oil revenue was going to pay for the war?

Now the Bush Administration and The Fed are saying that we have a financial crisis that needs an immediate $700 billion infusion from the American taxpayer. Did you know that some of that money could be used to bail out foreign owned banks?

Within the next 24 hours, Congress is expected to make an historic choice in addressing America’s financial crisis:

Cut the Bush administration a $700 billion blank check for Wall Street
OR
demand sensible public checks and balances in the $700 billion bailout.

Well, before you let them cut that blank check think about this?

Remember the brave US service men and women who were sent to war in Afghanistan and Iraq without proper body armor.

Remember the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center.

Remember that the US embassy in Iraq which cost in excess of $600 million to build and is projected to have an annual operating cost of $1.2 billion.

Remember that President Bush vetoed a $35 billion expansion to the SCHIP program which would have provided health insurance to millions of America’s uninsured children. He said that we couldn’t afford it.

Remember the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and now Ike. There are still parts of New Orleans’ 9th Ward as well as many parishes in Western Louisiana which have yet to have all of the debris removed.

Remember that five years after the worse blackout in US history, the energy grid is still “in dire straits“.

Americans, Get Over The Shock Already!

Are you going to let The Fed, the Bush Administration and Congress rush through a $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street and the banking industry when all of the aforementioned have put America and Americans last time after time after time after time?

Now, I’m not saying that nothing needs to be done to fix this broken economy. But are you going to let them rush to a bailout like they rushed to a war?

I just took action with the Campaign for America’s Future to weigh in for common sense solutions. I wanted to urge you to do the same. Please write an emergency letter to Congress now, and tell them: **No $700 Billion blank check to the Bush administration for Wall Street!**

Enough is Enough!

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Memo to the Media:  Stop Covering Manufactured Controversies, Start Covering Issues. 

It’s infuriating that the McCain campaign is continuing to claim statements they make are true, when many have been confirmed to be untrue.   Deception to change your perception, is what the Republicans seem to do best, and it’s only proven to win them elections.  So why would they stop?   Even more troubling, is that this behavior has become an “acceptable” practice in politics.  Not necessarily acceptable to you and me, but acceptable to the media, which in turn leads to the deception of the American people.

From Washington Post…

“We have created a system where there is not a lot of shame in stretching the truth,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

However, I’m discovering that the “real” truth isn’t in debunking the lies, it’s in seeing through the lies.

See…We have all fallen for a classic bait-and-switch here.  Clearly, if the media continues to chase down facts (that are purposefully misleading), then the McCain campaign successfully diverts attention away from the “real” issues.  Which is EXACTLY what they want to do (what they are doing).

Why is it that the only people who can see through this smoke-screen are comedians? Or, is it just that they are the only ones who are “allowed” to speak the truth? Isn’t that kinda backwards?

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Here is the ABC Charlie Gibson Interview with Sarah Palin. There is also some fact-checking of this interview by ABC, as well as some pundit reaction. Let me know what you thought about the interview in comments. Do you think Sarah Palin is ready to be V.P. or possibly the president of our country? Are you more or less likely to vote for John McCain with Sarah Palin on the ticket?

Sarah Palin Interview with Charlie Gibson (part one)

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Here is a guest post from community member Paula Hall.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

What comes first? I have the power therefore I have the domain? In order to conquer and to prove my power I go to war? Everywhere I hear people talk about war, power and domain. In an election year, after a terrorist attack and the war of Iraq, many still treat these subjects in a scary way.

News, endless interviews, I hear and read all that I can and still don’t get it. Many times and by many people, countries all over the world are taken for granted and sometimes it seems they are treated like our own backyards. The arguments over external politics are most likely to be if we own the world.

What impress me the most is that even after the most horrifying terrorist attack that chocked the Nation and the world and this absurd war, this continues to be the topic on today’s agenda. Only a few are really focusing at home and know how the next commander in chief will be handling subjects like education, health and public safety. On the other hand, it seems everyone have always something to say about Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.

I heard about this earlier from a post here, by Suzanne Reisman. I decided to look into it a bit more. The following is what I found.

Personally, I really question whether the Iraq war was God’s plan (seemed like it was a GOP Bush/Cheney plan to me).  And, did God also want the Bush administration to lie to get the war started?  That seems like a stretch.  However, I won’t presume to speak for God.  Let me know what you think in comments.

Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God.

Her speech in June provides as much insight into her policy leanings as anything uncovered since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate.

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord.

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How do you feel about how secretive the Bush/Cheney administration has been?  We already know this administration has used lies and deception in ways no other administration has.  Do you ever wonder how many lies we haven’t yet found out about?

With all the hoopla surrounding the presidential election, Dick Cheney may have hoped he could slip through the cracks of future scrutiny.   But today, steps are being taken to prevent Cheney from destroying any records.

From Washington Post…

Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.

In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney’s records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

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It seems the questions about healthcare always comes down to, who really “deserves” it, and who should pay for it?  Here is my take…

Where do your taxes go?  Is too much going to help people who can’t or won’t help themselves?  Let’s check it out and see…

This is from National Priorities.org…

Ok – To make this a little easier to understand, I’m going to use $100 as the amount of taxes we break-down to see where they are going.  However, anyone can go to this site and put their actual number in and get a specific breakdown for themselves.

So, let’s check this out.  For every $100 dollars you spend in income taxes, this is where the money goes…

Of the $100 you paid in taxes:

• $42 goes to Past and Current Military
• $22 goes to Health
• $10 goes to Interest on Non-Military Debt
• $9 goes to Anti-Poverty Programs
• $4 goes to Education, Training & Social Services
• $4 goes to Government & Law Enforcement
• $3goes to Housing & Community Development
• $3 goes to Environment, Energy & Science
• $2 goes to Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation
• $1 goes to International Relations

So, 22 dollars of 100 goes to Health ($458 billion) is the federal funds portion of all health spending by the federal government, including the federal funds spending on Medicare.

And, 9 dollars of 100 goes to Anti-Poverty Programs ($179.4 billion) includes federal funds outlays on the sub-function areas food and nutrition assistance ($54.5 billion) and other income security. Other income security includes Supplemental Security Income ($38.5 billion) which provides cash assistance to disabled, elderly and blind who have very low incomes; payments where Earned Income Tax Credit exceeds tax liability ($38.3 billion); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($16.9 billion); payments where child credit exceeds tax liability ($16.2 billion); foster care and adoption assistance ($6.6 billion); child care spending and a variety of other small programs for children and families.

And, 4 dollars of 100 to Education, Training and Social Services ($90.6 billion) includes all federal funds outlays on the function area of the same name which includes the following subfunction areas: elementary, secondary, and vocational education, higher education, and research and general education aids, training and employment, other labor services, and social services.

And, 3 dollars of 100 goes to Housing and Community Development ($69.2 billion) includes all federal funds outlays defined by the federal government as housing assistance ($39.7 billion), and the function area of community and regional development ($29.5 billion).

Most of our tax dollars (52 dollars of 100) are going to the Iraq war and the military…

Cost of the Iraq War…

• • $4,681 per household.
  • $1,721 per person.
  • $341.4 million per day.

You can go here to see what the Iraq war is costing your community.

So, do we pay too much in taxes, YES.  But, it’s not because we are compassionately providing some of our tax dollars to services for the sick, impoverished, and the hungry…It’s because the average tax payer is being forced to pay more in taxes because our government is letting multi-million/billion/trillion dollar corporations avoid paying taxes.  

Don’t be mad about how much of your tax dollar is going to help needy Americans…Be mad about all the tax dollars that are not being collected by corporations making millions and billions and trillions each year that could be reducing your taxes and subsidizing programs that could be helping the needy among us even more than we already do (which isn’t enough).  This report does not even include all the millions in tax credits our government is giving out to huge corporations (such as oil), or corporate welfare.  This is were the anger needs to be directed, not at each other.

From Marketplace…

Lemme get your reaction to something here for a second. If I told you there was a report out today showing two thirds of all Americans didn’t pay any income taxes, would you be surprised? Outraged, maybe? If you are, calm down. There’s no report saying that at all. But there is a study out today from the Government Accountability Office saying something similar. It finds that between 1998 and 2005, two thirds of companies in this country had at least one year where they didn’t pay any federal income tax. So, back to the outrage. Where is it?

(AP) Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from Congress.

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Did you see John McCain’s Acceptance speech?   What did you think?  Here is a roundup of what the media and the bloggers thought.  I hope you will let me know what you thought of the McCain speech in comments.

Rachel Maddow on John McCains’s speech…

—

From Megan McArdle…

• The words “I fought corruption” should never pass the lips of a charter member of the Keating Five.
• “I fight for you” is a clever tag line, and I presume the image that the McCain campaign has settled upon.  This will allow them–just barely–to keep making the ridiculous claim that John McCain doesn’t like to bring up the fact that he was a POW.  If John McCain didn’t want to bring it up, he would have instructed his staff not to mention it to every single person they talk to, including the barista at Caribou Coffee.
• Ack!  The dreaded “Free America from Dependence on Foreign Oil” meme rears its ugly head.  This is high definition hogwash.  Drilling isn’t going to save us from Demon Oil any more than windmills will.  It might make us some money.  But we’ll still be part of a world economy that will be pigheaded about buying their oil from funny people who don’t even speak English.
• John McCain does not seem particularly comfortable talking about God.  The lines are there, but they’re mechanical, clearly recited by rote.
• McCain claims he’ll cut government spending.  I’ll believe it when I see it.
• Boy, the folks at the RNC really hate national health care.

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Here is a guest post by community member Doris Anne Beaulieu from Life’s Ultimate Test.

[If you would like to be a guest blogger on The Political Voices of Women, just join our community, and start posting.]

How many of you watched the interview yesterday with Mrs. McCain? The word “we” was forever used and I wonder why? She stated her husband and her talk out ever thing before decision are made. Who is running for president? Should “we” be paying better attention to her as running for president? Why is this? Is McCain having trouble with his memory that she has to tell him what side he’s on or what he should do? Now is the time for these answers to be answered before voting date.

As for using McCain record in the military we appreciate his serving his country like many men have and we appreciate all who have done just as well but not recognized. My father served in WWII, my brother served in Vietnam and my son served two tour in Iraq.

First point I would like to make is many Viet.-Nam vets suffered a flashback after 9-11. As a nation we need to give this some though before voting and talk to a vet. Second point I would like to make is what men seen in a year in yesterday wars is seen by our troops in a week. A much harder war to be in and harder impact mentally. Please also think about this before voting. Palin can talk to us after her son has served a few tours in this war and let us know if she even has close to the same son back.

If McCain choose Palin because he wanted the women votes that Hillary had. Well I’m sure all women who have loss their children out of neglect will vote for them in hopes to turn that over too. Please think that whole game plan out too before voting.