13 okt 2008
Less Hilarious: The Rape-Kit Story
Writing for the Huffington Post's Off the Bus, and crossposting at Daily Kos, (Jacob Alperin-Sheriff, a 20-year-old blogger and junior at George Washington University) posted by far the most specific and factual analysis of the rape kit story in terms of Palin's role as mayor and the final say she had over the budget.
Combing through Wasilla's budgetary documents, which are posted online, Alperin-Sheriff showed that Palin had clearly signed off on a fiscal-year budget that reduced by three-quarters the amount of money the town set aside annually for rape-kit costs and that the rape-kit reduction was spelled out before the fiscal-year 2000 budget was approved by Mayor Sarah Palin on April 26, 1999.
And yet the corporate media says nothing. Of course, perhaps if Palin offered a little more access to the media, they'd be able to ask more questions about this disturbing fact. Until then, there are many in the independent media, like the filmmakers at the Wasilla Project, who are asking: If someone's home is burglarized, the tools of investigation are not paid for by the victim; why was rape considered different in Wasilla?
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"Look! I Can See Russia!"
In her first interview on the national stage, Palin claimed, with a straight face, that she was qualified to make complex foreign policy decisions because she could "see Russia from Alaska."
Lots of people in the McCain campaign, also with straight faces, echoed Palin's claim that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her an adequate understanding of international affairs.
Here's a fun coda to one of the McCain campaign's most embarrassing ploys to whitewash Palin's inexperience: It turns out that Palin has never actually seen Russia from Alaska. The only place in Alaska from which Russia is visible is an island called Little Diomede -- an economically depressed town with a 40 percent poverty rate that Palin has never, ever visited.
Unlike Palin, CNN's Gary Tuchman went to the island, where he interviewed townspeople who had barely heard of the Alaska governor.
About Sarah Palin's experience in foreign affairs can be said:
The first passport of her entire life is less than two years old.
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McCain to Unveil New Voodoo Economic Plans
As part of a plan to reinvigorate his flagging campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is considering additional economic measures aimed directly at the middle class that are likely to be rolled out this week, campaign officials said.Among the measures being considered are tax cuts – perhaps temporary – for capital gains and dividends, the officials said.
Pointer's comment: Of course tax-cuts. What else do you expect from McCain? You know how it works: The flow of capital stops, businesses close. You lose your jobs and your incomes and then there are tax-cuts. Congratulations!
“The market’s the focus,” a McCain adviser said. “You want to stop the fleeing.”
No more bailout money is being contemplated, the adviser said. “We’ve written a check to everyone in sight,” the adviser said. “We’re not in that game.”
McCain advisers hope that by being specific, he can pose a contrast to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who has been benefited from taking a vague but consistent approach to policy during the economic crisis.
Top McCain supporters have been agitating for a more robust economic package. It would give McCain something fresh to talk about on the stump, and dilute the perception that he’s relying mostly on attacks in the final stretch.
The McCain team is trying to stave off panic at a time of trouble for the nation - and for the campaign. He's doing this with an issue that has tormented him, as he has taken a patchwork approach to addressing the top issue on voters’ minds.
McCain has careened from stance to stance on the economy, starting with saying the fundamentals are sound, focusing on earmarks, applauding new powers for the Treasury Department, then advocating a bailout for homeowners.
In a matter of weeks, McCain has gone from being a conventional tax-cutting conservative to a big-government interventionist.
Officials could not say what the package might include because more than 30 ideas have been put in front of McCain during the current crisis, and they said he has to choose what to unveil and when.
“That’s up to McCain,” one official said. But we all know that McCain said he doesn't know as much about economics as it should have to be.
Among the ideas that have been considered are a bigger tax deduction for middle class mortgages, and more a more robust loan program for small businesses. But officials said the front-burner ideas all dealt specifically with markets.
McCain’s new package would amount to a do-over from the hasty introduction of McCain’s mortgage buy-up program, which was widely criticized by conservatives and was seized on by Obama as a fresh target.
So top McCain advisers want him to throw more out there, hoping it’ll stick.
McCain and his inner circle will consider the possibilities at a meeting Sunday, officials said.
The measures being considered are aimed at jump-starting the economy by helping the middle class and bolstering trust and confidence in financial markets, the officials said.
But Pointer is sure of this: when McCain's election chance becomes a little more serious, the market will respond with a total collapse. We are at 20-25% down now, in the Great Depression it came to 40% down. That record can easily be broken when McCain's star is above the horizon again.
On Friday, without fanfare, McCain during remarks in LaCrosse, Wis., proposed that Congress suspend the current U.S. Tax Code requirement that seniors begin selling their retirement assets at age 70 ½.
“Current rules mandate that investors must begin to sell off their IRAs and 401Ks when they reach age 70 and one half,” McCain said. “To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the market is hurting the most, those rules should be suspended.”
That's fine, my friend...
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