America is No Different

"The fate of empires is very often sealed by the interaction of war and debt. That was true of the British Empire, whose finances deteriorated from the First World War onwards, and of the Soviet Union. Defeat in Afghanistan and the economic burden of trying to respond to Reagan's technically flawed but politically extremely effective Star Wars program were vital factors in triggering the Soviet collapse. Despite its insistent exceptionalism, America is no different," - John Gray.

Until the US scales back its imperial ambitions across the Middle East and seriously cuts its entitlement state, the country's global hegemony will come to an abrupt and humiliating end.

HT: The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

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To Be Governed By Those Who Hold Government in Contempt

The people who have been running our government for the past eight years have nothing but contempt for government. They believe only in politics and ideology, in that order. First, win elections by any means necessary. Second, once in a position to act in the public good, govern with the ideological conviction that government is either irrelevant or harmful to the public interest.

You can draw a straight line between firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons and turning a blind eye to the ruinous excesses of Wall Street. What's impartial justice against the possibility of gaining political advantage? Why shackle the hallowed free market with government oversight?

And, if you want to draw the line a little further, who cares if the prospective vice president appears to know nothing about anything? -- Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post

From Horses Mouth: The Obama Plan

18 Times - And He's Not Talking About Workers...

Same Data, Two Charts

This boils it down pretty succinctly. Are you a supply-sider like McCain, or a demand-sider like Obama?

 

HT: Chartjunk

NYTimes' Bob Herbert on the McCain Healthcare Plan

John McCain’s health plan is a monumental change in the way coverage would be provided to millions of people. Why aren’t we paying more attention?

For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on. “It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs. According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”

This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.

You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.

But we’re not even paying much attention.

read more | digg story

To My Dear Friends Who Support McCain for President

I know many of my posts related to politics are snarky so you may not be inclined to take this post very seriously. If you don't, it is my own fault.

I've been thinking on and off all day about how to formulate this post and then, in an RSS feed from conservative writer, Andrew Sullivan, I'm directed to an article by Steve Chapman of ReasonOnline who puts it better than I ever could:

Why does McCain insist on running such a mendacious campaign? There is plenty an honest conservative might say in opposition to Obama: He's wrong about Iraq. He's wrong about Iran. He's wrong about offshore oil drilling. He wants to raise taxes. He favors abortion on demand. He would appoint liberal judges. He would impede school reform.

But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn't enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe.

He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What's McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul.

You can find the full article here.

A new ad was released today that opens with a clip of the candidate I supported in the 2000 race for President, John McCain. (If that McCain still existed I might have a more difficult time deciding who to support)

John McCain has sold his soul.