John Sherffius
Tom Toles
Ben Sargent
Pat Oliphant
Mike Luckovich
David Horsey
Steve Benson
Jack Ohman
Thank you all for your hard work, your time, effort, dollars, and everything that you put into this campaign. Yes, WE DID!!!!
Poway folks -- party at my place this weekend. Email me if you're interested for address and specifics -- 6 pm, Saturday....
Let's do this thing!
Went walkabout in the real world yesterday.
I mean, if you consider NYC the "real" world. Did see these t-shirts:
This morning, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) gave her first policy speech urging the federal government to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), “a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation.” In the speech, Palin cited the need to do more for children with disabilities such as autism:
For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information. Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference.
Palin claimed that the amount that Congress spends on earmarks “is more than the shortfall to fully fund IDEA.” She then ridiculed some of the projects — such as “fruit fly research” — saying they have little or no value:
Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You’ve heard about some of these pet projects they really don’t make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.
Palin did not specify what fruit fly research earmark she was referring to (presumably a grant for olive fruit fly research), but she is apparently unaware that scientific research with fruit flies has led to valuable discoveries that have boosted autism research, as a study at the University of North Carolina demonstrated last year:
[S]cientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly. The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.
[S]cientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.
The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.
The study of fruit flies has also been used for other autism research and “revolutionize[d]” the study of birth defects.
Tune in tonight as Michael Moore will be Larry's sole guest for the majority of the hour. Michael will be interviewed live on location with a group of plumbers who support Barack Obama.
Don't miss Mike with "Plumbers for Obama" on Larry King Live tonight (Thursday, October 23rd) at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT on CNN (replay at midnight ET/9:00 PM PT and 3:00 AM ET/midnight PT).
Tune in tonight and plumb the vote on November 4th.
Webmaster MichaelMoore.com
http://soggytoast.livejournal.com/125831.html
On Sunday, the Washington Times’s Christina Bellantoni stopped by a polling place in North Carolina, where she reported that a “group of loud and angry protestors” — almost all of whom were white — were shouting and mocking voters — nearly all of whom were black. Bellatoni noted that people “were shouting about Obama’s acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word ‘terrorist.’ They also were complaining that Sundays are for church, not voting.”
Video available at the link....
Last Thursday and Friday, more than 200,000 voters went the polls in the first two days of early voting in North Carolina.
October 18, 2008 by Rochelle Lesser
Senator Obama is featured in book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with this photo of him holding Baby, the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation.
Press Release: Humane Society Legislative Fund Endorses Obama-Biden
One of the guiding principles of the Humane Society Legislative Fund is that we evaluate candidates based on a single criterion: where they stand on animal protection policies. We don’t make decisions based on party affiliation, or any other social issue, or even how many pets they have. We care about their views and actions on the major policy debates relating to animal welfare.
It stirs controversy to get involved in candidate elections. But we believe that candidates for office and current lawmakers must be held accountable, or they will see the animal protection movement as a largely irrelevant political constituency. In order to have good laws, we need good lawmakers, and involvement in elections is an essential strategy for any serious social movement, including our cause.
While we’ve endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, WE’VE NEVER BEFORE ENDORSED A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party’s candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.
I’m proud to announce today that the HSLF board of directors — which is comprised of both Democrats and Republicans — has voted unanimously to endorse Barack Obama for President. The Obama-Biden ticket is the better choice on animal protection, and we urge all voters who care about the humane treatment of animals, no matter what their party affiliation, to vote for them.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a solid supporter of animal protection at both the state and federal levels. As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-sponsored multiple bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and federal laws to combat animal fighting and puppy mills.
In his response to the HSLF questionnaire, he pledged support for nearly every animal protection bill currently pending in Congress, and said he will work with executive agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to make their policies more humane. He wrote of the important role animals play in our lives, as companions in our homes, as wildlife in their own environments, and as service animals working with law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. He also commented on the broader links between animal cruelty and violence in society.
Obama has even on occasion highlighted animal protection issues on the campaign trail, and has spoken publicly about his support for animal protection. In reaction to the investigation showing the abuse of sick and crippled cows which earlier this year led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, he issued a statement saying “that the mistreatment of downed cows is unacceptable and poses a serious threat to public health.” He is featured in Jana Kohl’s book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with a photo of Obama holding Baby (shown above), the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation, and his political mentor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), is the author of the latest federal bill to crack down on puppy mills.
Importantly, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has been a stalwart friend of animal welfare advocates in the Senate, and has received high marks year after year on the Humane Scorecard. Biden has not only supported animal protection legislation during his career, but has also led the fight on important issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In the short term, if you’re healthy and wealthy, you can use Sen. John McCain’s $2,500/$5,000 health care tax credit and enroll in a low premium/high deductible health care plan in the unregulated individual health insurance market. Once you get sick, you may lose your coverage to another round of medical underwriting … see your costs increase astronomically … have certain conditions exempt from coverage … the list goes on and on.
But for the 56 million Americans with employer coverage today who have a chronic illness, who are women or who are ages 55 to 64 — three groups of people who pay more for health insurance in the individual market — McCain’s plan to shift Americans from the employer-based insurance market to the individual market is more than an inconvenience, it’s a net loss.
Because while insurance companies require older and sicker people (or those who simply use more care, like women) to pay higher premiums, McCain’s plan doesn’t offer them a higher tax credit.
In fact, according to a new report from CAPAF, “the flat $2,500 credit will cover less than 48 percent for older Americans and more than 48 percent for younger Americans”:
Specifically it would cover 84 percent of the premium for an 18-to-24-year-old, but only 23 percent of the premium for a 60-to 64-year old…The McCain plan gives people ages 60 to 64 a tax credit that is 53 percent lower than one that adjusts for premium variation by age.”
What’s more, boomers — who make up 17 percent of non-elderly adults but account for 26 percent of those with at least one chronic illness — will have a hard time finding coverage in a market which tries to maximize profit by insuring only the healthiest Americans. But if they go uninsured, Medicare costs will skyrocket. In fact, a recent study found that “chronically ill people turning age 65 who were previously uninsured had lower spending than insured people prior to Medicare. Yet once on Medicare, these uninsured Americans spent 50 percent more than previously insured Medicare beneficiaries who also had chronic disease”:
If, as one study suggests, being uninsured increases spending by 50 percent…having 2.4 million more chronically ill Americans join Medicare as uninsured rather than previously insured could raise its costs by $2.4 billion per year in 2005 dollars.”
Thus, under McCain’s plan older and sicker Americans — and in fact all Americans — pay more for less. Read the full CAPAF report here.
Looks like John and Cindy first, to me....
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/10/20/cindy-cap-gains/
Our guest blogger is Michael Ettlinger, Vice President for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
On Friday, the McCain campaign released Cindy McCain’s 2007 tax returns. Sadly for the McCains, Mrs. McCain shows over $1.8 million dollars less tax return income in 2007 than 2006. Of course, she still reported over $4 million of income ($4,197,028) which — when added to the Senator’s tax return income in 2007 ($405,409) — brought their total to over $4.5 million ($4,602,437 to be precise).
A large source of income for the McCains came in the form of capital gains. This is an example of how, though many people have capital gains income sporadically throughout their lives, the wealthy have them quite consistently and they constitute an important source of income. In 2006, the McCains reported a total of $743,476 in capital gains. In 2007 they reported $746,395.
Last week, as part of his new Pension and Family Security Plan, Sen. McCain proposed temporarily cutting the capital gains tax from 15 percent to 7.5 percent. The proposal — had it been in effect in these years — would have reduced the McCains’ taxes by $55,761 in 2006 and $55,980 in 2007 (a two-year total of $111,740).
This is on top of the more than $350,000 that they would have saved in 2006 due to McCain’s other tax proposals.
One other note: the campaign refuses to release anything but Mrs. McCain’s 1040 tax form, which provides only a fraction of the information that she is reporting to the IRS. Most of the McCains’ decline in income between 2007 and 2006 was in “Schedule E” income. Schedule E is a form where income from a wide variety of sources is reported - including trusts and a type of closely held (often family owned) business.
There is a great deal of income legally sheltered from taxation in the machinations underlying the schedule E. Without having Mrs. McCain’s complete records, it’s impossible to know for sure whether the McCains actually did better or worse in 2007 than in 2006 - their accountants may just have had more ways to legally shelter income.
Responding to conservative claims that progressives would raise taxes on middle-class Americans like Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (a.k.a. ‘Joe the Plumber’) and undermine the success of small businesses, today’s Progress Report argues that a progressive tax policy is exactly how millions like ‘Joe the Plumber’ can realize the American Dream. The same is true for health care policy.
‘Joe the Plumber’ has himself experienced the consequences of rising health care costs. After St. Charles Mercy Hospital filed a lien against him in 2007 for $1,261, ‘Joe the Plumber’ joined a long-line of Americans who are squeezed by growing costs.
Nationally, costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and most of those who go bankrupt because of medical problems have health insurance. Total health care spending has doubled between 1996 and 2006, and without reform it is expected to double again in the coming decade.
But the change that Joe’s preferred candidate for President, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), offers would do very little to reduce Americans’ health care debt; in fact, it may add to it. Sure McCain speaks a good game about controlling health care costs, but his health care plan merely shifts the costs of insurance from the employer and the government to the individual. McCain controls cost by providing less care.
In McCain world, Joe is responsible for negotiating with a health insurance company and finding affordable coverage for himself or his children. Should he be lucky enough to find insurance in the individual market place (and only about 10 percent of applicants do), high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses would bankrupt the plumber, should his family become sick and actually need care. Since McCain’s plan undermines existing consumer protections, the insurance company could exclude certain conditions from coverage, deny medical claims, and increase premiums. In time, McCain’s $5,000 health credit would depreciate in value, raising Joe’s taxes, and forcing him to pay more for his health insurance plan.
Unfortunately, since ‘Joe the Plumber’ is no ‘Joe Millionaire,’ McCain’s health care plan would do little to help him afford health insurance.
These are the supporters you're so proud of, John?
Come on, stop the hate and end your abusive campaign that inspires nothing but hatred and anger, John. In the words of John Stewart, "Stop Hurting America", John McCain!
last updated: October 17, 2008 03:51:00 PM
WASHINGTON — An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.
Attorneys for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division of the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for the group.
Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.
Kettenring said that a senior ACORN staffer in Cleveland, after appearing on television this week, got an e-mail that said she "is going to have her life ended."
A female staffer in Providence, R.I., got a threatening call from someone who said words to the effect of "We know you get off work at 9," then uttered racial epithets, he said.
McClatchy is withholding the women's names because of the threats.
Separately, vandals broke into the group's Boston and Seattle offices and stole computers, Kettenring said.
The incidents came the day after McCain charged in the final presidential debate that ACORN's voter-registration drive "may be perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history" and may be "destroying the fabric of democracy."
McCain's comments provoked a response from ACORN.
"I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence," Kettenring said, "but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish. We would call on Senator McCain to tamp down the fringe elements in his party."
McCain's campaign didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kettenring said that ACORN had received growing amounts of hate mail in recent weeks, but "the campaign debate sort of tipped it over to a scary point, where raising allegations of voter fraud went from a cynical campaign ploy to really inciting racial violence."
Since McCain's remarks, ACORN's 87 offices across the country have received hundreds of hostile e-mails, many of them containing racial slurs, Kettenring said. "We believe that these are specifically McCain supporters" sending the messages, he said.
The e-mail to the Cleveland employee was traced to a Facebook Web page in the name of a Baltimore man. It featured a photo of a McCain-Palin sign.
Kettenring said that the bulk of the e-mails had been either "flat-out racist" or had racial overtones. Most of the group's 400 members and about 80 percent of the 13,000 voter-registration canvassers are African-American or Latino.
It's unclear whether the alleged threats violated federal law, but Jonah Goldman, the director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that battles discrimination, argued that the Voting Rights Act should apply.
"A real concern is the impact that these terrible acts have on the people who registered through these registration drives," Goldman said. "Legitimate, eligible voters who sign up through these registration drives may be understandably intimidated and choose not to show up at the polls, and the Voting Rights Act prevents voter intimidation."
Elizabeth Holmes reports from Greensboro, N.C. on the presidential race.
Sarah Palin didn’t want to talk about Joe the Plumber.
At a fund-raiser here Thursday, Palin said she “begged our speechwriters” to give her a reprieve from mentioning the Ohio man made famous at Wednesday’s debate.
“Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches,” the GOP vice presidential candidate said she told her staff. The Alaska governor relented, she said, because of the sentiment that the man inspired.
“We know what Joe the Plumber was talking about when he was confronting Barack Obama and saying, ‘Wait a minute, aren’t you going to take my money, take my earnings and give it to somebody else who maybe hadn’t worked as hard as I have worked?’” Palin said.
The hypothetical questions kept coming. “What about this reward for strong work ethic, isn’t that what capitalism is all about? Isn’t that what the American economy should be based upon?” she asked.
Her remarks to the crowd, roughly 500 people who raised a total of $800,000 for the Republican National Committee, were filled with motivational talk.
“Being here encourages me because I know that I’m not alone,” Palin told the crowd gathered here Thursday evening. “At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it’s easy to get a little bit discouraged.”
Palin said the campaign had seen some good news in recent polls. “We even saw today, thank the Lord, we saw some movement,” she said, looking upwards and making a fist when she said “thank the Lord.”
Palin then said what many people are thinking this election cycle: watching cable news can be depressing.
“Sometimes, you do get depressed watching what it is that they’re reporting and the spin and some of the distortion of what our message is and what we stand for,” Palin said, adding that it “gets draining.”
Unlike most fund raisers, where the guest of honor is whisked away afterwards, Palin worked the crowd like she would any rally rope line. The scene was like most rallies, with people climbing over each other, sticking their digital cameras in the air and standing on chairs just to get a glimpse. Except this time, it was a mob of wealthy donors in suits and heels.
Palin stuck around for nearly 30 minutes after the speech, despite two different urgings by the hosts for the crowd to disperse. “You will have an opportunity to get signatures from Gov. Palin in the back,” one man said, butPalin was among the last to leave the tent.
As ThinkProgress and many others noted yesterday, the premise of Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher’s complaints about Barack Obama’s tax plan was ill-informed. Contrary to Wurzelbacher’s claims, “neither his personal taxes nor those of the business where he works are likely to rise if Mr. Obama’s tax plan were to go into effect.”
As CBS News reported, even “Joe The Plumber” acknowledges this fact now:
So today, Joe, who said he makes much less than $250,000, reluctantly admitted Obama would lower his taxes. “I would, if you believe him, I would be receiving his tax cuts,” Wurzelbacher said.
So today, Joe, who said he makes much less than $250,000, reluctantly admitted Obama would lower his taxes.
“I would, if you believe him, I would be receiving his tax cuts,” Wurzelbacher said.
Bloomberg reports that “one other problem in making Wurzelbacher a symbol of the overtaxed” is that — even if he did earn an adjusted gross income of $280,000 — “he would pay just $773 more in taxes under Obama’s plan than McCain’s.” That amount would hardly deal a crippling blow to his potential small business.
Last night, Sarah Palin said she didn’t want to talk about Wurzelbacher. “I begged our speechwriters, ‘Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches,” she said. After failing to properly vet Wurzelbacher’s situation, the McCain campaign is apparently now throwing him overboard and moving on.
The campaign is holding a conference call today with Russ Deker, an individual the McCain camp is calling “a Missouri ‘Joe the Plumber.’”
