Day: June 11, 2008

A US Coalition To Stop A War With Iran

An unusual coalition of interest groups from left and right is launching a drive today to head off an American military attack on Iran by pushing America into high-level negotiations with Tehran.

The Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran, which bills itself as “transpartisan,” consists of more than three dozen organizations, most of them left-leaning, such as the American Friends Service Committee, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Open Society Policy Center, which is backed by George Soros.

However, the campaign also has the backing of a smattering of right-of-center groups, including the American Conservative Defense Alliance, the Libertarian Party, and the American Cause, which is headed by Patrick Buchanan.

The campaign to push for direct talks with Iran’s mullahs is kicking off with a press conference this morning on Capitol Hill expected to feature the Libertarian nominee for president, Robert Barr, as well as several members of Congress, including Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Barbara Lee of California, both Democrats, and Rep. Ron Paul, who mounted a bid for this year’s Republican presidential nomination. Brandishing red telephones supposed to symbolize a hotline to Tehran, the group will urge supporters to call Congress and press for talks.
One advocate of a tough line toward Tehran, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute, disputed the coalition’s suggestion that America has been unwilling to talk with Iran. “We’ve tried everything. There’s no stick we haven’t brandished. There’s no carrot we haven’t dangled,” he said. “They don’t want us. They’re our enemies.”

Some campaign participants could draw unwanted notoriety to the effort. Last year, federal prosecutors named one member of the coalition, the Council on American Islamic Relations, as an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal case linking the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation and Hamas. Cair denied the claim and asked a judge to strike the co-conspirator list from the public record. Jurors acquitted the defendants on some counts and could not reach a verdict on most, but Cair’s motion was never ruled on.

Apparently not all pundits are agreeing with McCain and the Bush rhetoric.  I wish them success for a peaceful end to these smoldering hostilities.

Political Loyalty

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was gracious in her full-throated endorsement of Senator Barack Obama. But that does not mean all is forgiven by others in the Clinton universe.

For proof, look no further than Doug Band, chief gatekeeper to former President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Band keeps close track of the past allies and beneficiaries of the Clintons who supported Mr. Obama’s campaign, three Clinton associates and campaign officials said. Indeed, he is widely known as a member of the Clinton inner circle whose memory is particularly acute on the matter of who has been there for the couple — and who has not.

“The Clintons get hundreds of requests for favors every week,” said Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “Clearly, the people you’re going to do stuff for in the future are the people who have been there for you.”

Philippe Reines, a spokesman for both Clintons, said neither kept any specific catalog of those believed to have wronged them. “There is no list,” Mr. Reines said.

The lists maintained by supporters tend to be less formal documents than spoken diatribes, with offenders’ names spat forth in rants, gripe sessions and post-mortems.

Several names and entities are common among various list makers. The lineup invariably begins with A-list members like Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico; Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Democratic whip; Gregory B. Craig, Mr. Clinton’s lawyer in his impeachment and trial; David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist; Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri; and several Kennedys. Some members of the Democratic Party’s rules committee, the state of Iowa and the caucus system in general are also near the top.

If you truly believe that there is no list then you are, sorry to say, a very naive person. As the old say goes, “paybacks are a bitch”!  Take that anyway you would like!

Obama And The VEEP-stakes

The bigeest question flying all over the media is, who will be the VEEP choice?

Start with the most obvious. Next to President Bush, Hillary Clinton is probably the most unpopular political figure in the country. How does such a polarizing figure help you make a pitch to the electorate for “unity”? How do the politics of the ’90s make the case for “change”?

Second, while Hillary unites the Democrats, Obama ideally wants someone who appeals across the aisle to independents and soft Republicans.

Third is the issue of trust. Would Hillary be subservient to Obama’s agenda or her own? And keep in mind that when When Hillary hops aboard you get a two-fer: all of her baggage and all of BILL’S baggage.

Does Obama really need all of that?

But if he doesn’t pick Hillary, who should he select? Here are six strong possibilities.

SAM NUNN. A southern Scoop Jackson, Nunn spent a quarter-century in the U.S. Senate from Georgia, developing bipartisan praise for his grasp of national defense issues and international relations. His one drawback is that he’s been out of the game for a decade. Party liberals would also flinch at his moderate to conservative (for a Democrat) tendencies. He voted against the Clinton tax hikes and opposed uncloseted gays in the armed forces.

It’s more likely that Obama will choose someone from outside Washington, D.C., probably one of the following four governors.

TIM KAINE. The first-term governor of Virginia, Kaine is 50, Catholic and popular in an important battleground state in November.

TED STRICKLAND. The 2004 election got down to just one state, Ohio. In the last four years, voters in that swing state veered sharply toward the Democrats after growing weary of Republican misrule and malfeasance. Ted Strickland, a youthful-looking 67, was elected governor in 2006 after a career as a minister and Congressman.

ED RENDELL. The 64-year old two-term governor of Pennsylvania, Rendell, 64, is a onetime district attorney and former mayor of Philadelphia. He also is a former chairman of the Democratic party.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS. The daughter of a former governor, Sebelius, 60, has been in politics most of her adult life. She also has been a strong supporter of Barack Obama. One drawback: Kansas is not as important as Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.

Then there’s the fantasy choice that effectively would end the race:

COLIN POWELL. But the former Secretary of State and national security adviser is an old friend of John McCain’s and probably won’t do anything to oppose him.

Any one of these people would be a vast improvement over Hillary Clinton, who would likely prove true one of Richard Nixon’s political maxims: “Vice Presidents can’t win you votes, they can only lose you votes.”

So, as so many of us have asked, who would be your choice?

Collapse Of The Middle Class

This is a piece written by Rep. Bernie Sanders of the Progressive Caucus:

As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Vermonters to tell him what was going on in their lives economically.

He expected a few dozen replies.  In fact, hundreds of e-mail letters poured in.

Sanders has gone to the Senate floor to read aloud from scores of the letters. Now he has assembled the most poignant stories in a booklet; The Collapse of the Middle Class, Letters from Vermont and America.

A Vermont mother wrote, “We have at times had to choose between baby food and heating fuel.”  A 55-year-old man from rural Pennsylvania said, “I am just tired, the harder that I work the harder it gets.” A retired couple in Vermont asked, “Does anybody in Washington care?”

“It is one thing to read dry economic statistics which describe the collapse of the American middle class,” Sanders said.  “It is another thing to understand, in flesh and blood terms, what that means in the lives of ordinary Americans.

“The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline,” he added.  “They speak about families who, not long ago, thought they were economically secure, but now find themselves sinking into desperation and hopelessness.

“It is imperative,” Sanders said, “that Congress and the corporate media understand the painful reality facing the middle class today so that we can develop the appropriate public policy to address this crisis.”

An electronic version of the booklet also is available on Sanders’ Web page at http://www.sanders.senate.gov/qa/meetingqs.cfm

Oil Escapes Tax Increase

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a proposal to tax the windfall profits of the nation’s biggest oil companies and eliminate some of the firms’ tax breaks, rejecting Democratic claims that the measure would help assuage consumer anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline.

The vote was largely partisan, with each party sticking to long-held positions while striving to connect with frustrated consumers in an election year. Gasoline prices rose another 2 cents Tuesday to a nationwide average of $4.04 a gallon for regular, but there appeared to be little prospect of imminent action by Congress or the Bush administration.

The 51-43 Senate vote fell nine short of the 60 required to proceed to debate on the Democrat-sponsored energy measure, which would have erased $17 billion in tax breaks for oil companies over 10 years. It also would have created a levy on “unreasonable” profits collected by the five largest U.S. oil companies. Only six Republicans voted to move ahead

The bill would have used the revenue to create an Energy Independence and Security Trust Fund, charged with reducing U.S. dependence on foreign and “unsustainable” energy sources and reducing the risks of global warming.

The bill also would have instructed the Justice Department to pursue members of OPEC for alleged price fixing and required oil traders to put up more cash on futures exchanges to address speculation, which many observers believe is contributing to the unprecedented run-up in world crude oil prices.

Republicans said that the measure, which they dubbed the “no energy bill,” would do little to lower gasoline prices and could have the opposite effect by placing an additional tax burden on oil companies. They said the nation could combat high fuel prices more effectively by increasing domestic oil supplies by permitting new exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in waters on the Outer Continental Shelf. Most congressional Democrats oppose drilling in those areas.

Ok I have a question–will someone explain to me why we provide subsidies to oil companies when they are making many billions in profits?  Where is that sound fiscal policy?  Why would domestic drilling cut the price of gas?  These are great talking points, but NO one every explains the way it would work.  Just that it would lower prices.  Fine, but why will it lower those prices.  if anyone has an answer—I am listening!

A Concert Of Democracies

Where have I heard that term before? For many years I have been preaching that the 2 major parties are so similar that one needs a guidebook to determine which is which. On May 31, 2008 I did a post on McCain’s proposal of a League of Democracies. Back in 2007, the Democratic Leadership Council, printed a proposal for a “Concert Of Democracies”.

Some U.S. progressives are coalescing around an idea they hope will resolve this dilemma: a Concert of Democracies. As envisioned by the Princeton Project, led by John Ikenberry and Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Concert would combine non- Western nations like Japan, India, South Korea, and Australia with the trans-Atlantic partners in a global alliance of some 60 genuinely liberal democracies.

Its main purpose would be to create a more effective instrument of collective security, by reforming the United Nations if possible, or by creating an alternative venue for action if necessary. A Princeton Project report puts it this way: “If (Security Council) expansion and reform proves impossible by the end of this decade & the Concert could become an alternative forum for the approval of the use of force in cases where the use of the veto at the Security Council prevented free nations from keeping faith with the aims of the U.N. Charter.”

A coalition that includes the world’s richest countries would also be a soft-power juggernaut. It could coordinate trade and aid strategies to encourage growth and reform in developing countries. Following the precedent of the European Union and the former Soviet satellite countries, the prospect of joining the Concert would give countries strong incentives to liberalize their economic and political systems. And its decisions would arguably be more legitimate than those of the United Nations, a majority of whose members are not democratically accountable to their people.

Sorry but we “progressives” are not playing this game. This basically the same proposal that McCain came up with, or should I say , which came first the league or the concert? Both these proposals are just an attempt to circumvent the UN. These both want to put the US i9n the drivers seat, when actually gthe US has lost the control of the economic vehicle to developing countries.

This idea is just another conservative plan, whether it comes from Repubs or Dems. The DLC has steadily moved the Dem Party into the column of conservatism. I was always amazed when I would hear that Clinton is a liberal. Nothing and I mean nothing is further from the truth.  Why do I mention this, well Clinton, both of them are members of the DLC and as such are nothing more than conservatives in Dem clothing.

Paul Is Not Through Yet

Representative Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate, will be the main attraction at the Twin Cities confab. No, not the Republican National Convention fewer than eight miles away at the XCel Center, but at his own party, to be held on the second day of the event that will seal Senator John McCain as the G.O.P. nominee.

“This isn’t a protest,” said Jesse Benton, the libertarian-leaning Republican’s spokesman. “This is a celebration of limited government and Republican principles.”

Mr. Paul, of Texas, racked up record-breaking amounts of money and passionate Internet support during his bid for the Republican nomination. He refused to officially quit the race even after Mr. McCain amassed enough delegates to claim the nomination, and he continued to garner around a quarter of the votes in late primaries. About 50 people will attend the convention as delegates pledged to Mr. Paul.

Will Paul retain his supporters through the general?  Will he be a McCain spoiler, the way Nader was accused in 2000?

It Is The Economy, Stupid!

Or Tax And Spend?

McCain, speaking to small-business leaders in Washington, D.C., said Obama’s plans to restore higher tax rates for upper-bracket taxpayers, increase the capital gains tax rate for the richest families, and possibly raise the cap on Social Security taxes would affect not just the wealthy, but also moderate-income voters and independent businesses.

“Under Senator Obama’s tax plan, Americans of every background would see their taxes rise – seniors, parents, small-business owners, and just about everyone who has even a modest investment in the market,” McCain said at a small-business summit sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Businesses and eBay.

Does anyone want more taxes? Of course, no one does, but with that said please explain how to pay for domestic programs without them. If you do not want more taxes, I have an idea–end the war–there is a bunch of cash.

But wait there is a candidate that says all out fiscal policies can be paid for with tax breaks. Please explain this–spend more money with less income–this is now a sound plan. The cold hard truth is that there will need to be a tax increase somewhere and for someone. n But as usual the American people would prefer to be lied to and made to feel good.  Sorry, sports fans, YOU need to face reality and that reality is that there is a need for a tax increase to generate the funds that will be needed to pay for the programs that you are voting for.