Eight Days ago, Palin told Brian Williams she would release her health records. So far, the McCain camp says they are not ready yet. One would think they need to be out by tomorrow for anyone to review them.
What’s up with this?
A month ago I wrote the Bob Gates seemed to be taking on the Military Industrial Complex in a battle to create a military for today’s battles rather than refighting the cold war. Now it seems like that battle is heating up inside the Pentagon and the Congress.
One faction, led by a host of senior officers, favors buying state-of-the-art weapons systems that would be useful in a traditional conflict with a nation like Russia or China. The other side, which includes Defense Secretary Robert Gates, believes the military should prepare for grinding insurgencies that closely resemble the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One of the old bulls in Congress who is fighting for more big weapons systems is John Murtha. I hope that guys like Murtha and Dingell understand that they just can’t sit and protect their old ”constituents” (military contractors or automakers) anymore. In the new fiscal realities every single Pentagon program is going to have to be reviewed.
The New York Times has two days a week when a conservative and liberal op-ed columnist are paired off. Today was one of the rare occurences when they agreed about something–The need for a Green New Deal– a major WPA like government investment in infrastructure and alternative energy.
No, what the economy needs now is something to take the place of retrenching consumers. That means a major fiscal stimulus. And this time the stimulus should take the form of actual government spending rather than rebate checks that consumers probably wouldn’t spend.
Let’s hope, then, that Congress gets to work on a package to rescue the economy as soon as the election is behind us. And let’s also hope that the lame-duck Bush administration doesn’t get in the way.
A major infrastructure initiative would create jobs for the less-educated workers who have been hit hardest by the transition to an information economy. It would allow the U.S. to return to the fundamentals…Moreover, an infrastructure resurgence is desperately needed. Americans now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, a figure expected to double by 2020.
The smart thing to do is announce a short-term infrastructure initiative to accelerate all those repair projects that can be done within a few years. Then, begin a long-term National Mobility Project.
The lame duck congress meeting in November has only one job. Get the Green New Deal started.
There is something monumentally metaphorical when Joe the Plumber oversleeps and doesn’t make it to the McCain rally. Up too late with Brittany Spears and his new Hollywood agent is my guess.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOdgT74aqTM]
What if traditional conservative voters are embarrassed to tell pollsters they are voting for Obama?
Obama’s 30 minute infomercial was beautifully produced, but did anyone watch?
An infomercial on behalf of Mr. Obama was a smashing ratings success on Wednesday night, proving to be more popular than even the final game of the World Series — and last season’s finale of “American Idol.” The audience for Mr. Obama’s program far exceeded the expectations of television executives — and many political pundits who questioned whether Mr. Obama was engaging in overkill in buying a half hour on so many networks.
So much for the pundits.
The conservative blogger Joe Knippenberg is worried about the early voting results.
If 30% vote early, that’s 45 million. If Obama gets 60% of the early voters, he starts election day with a 9 million vote lead. At 55%, he starts with a 4.5 million vote lead. Under the first scenario, McCain would have to win 54% of the votes on election day to pull even. Under the second, he’d have to win 52.5% of the votes. Only the second seems even a remote possibility.
I know I’m mixing religous metaphors in my headline, but as I suspected Al Qaeda (meaning “The Base” in Arabic) has put out a message calling for the humiliation of the Republican Party.
As Joe Klein Points out, this is not new.
On the Friday before the 2004 presidential election, Osama bin Laden released a videotape slamming George W. Bush, which more than a few people took as a tacit endorsement of John Kerry. The CIA saw it differently, though. According to Ron Suskind’s fine book, The One Percent Doctrine, Deputy Director John McLaughlin said, “Bin Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President.” It seemed obvious to the top CIA analysts that bin Laden wanted to keep Bush — who had let the terrorists off the hook in Afghanistan and launched the war in Iraq, a great recruiting tool for al-Qaeda — in power.
Personally, this one doesn’t pass the “who cares” test, so if this is the October Surprise, I doubt that it will help McCain.
It appears that Congressman Henry Waxman is as concerned as I am about the potential of Wall Street Banks paying billions in bonuses from their taxpayer bailout funds. He’s asked for more information from the CEO’s of the Big Banks.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxbGPDIVINM&eurl]