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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY
DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER
Week of October 10, 2008
The link to this electronic newsletter is being e-mailed to 6,500+
Jefferson County Democrats
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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS
Updated on a regular basis
Bulletin Board:
- The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at Democratic Headquarters,
- 640 Barret Avenue .
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Mad Dog Palin, MATT TAIBBI
The scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America
I'm standing outside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sarah Palin has just finished her speech to the Republican National Convention, accepting the party's nomination for vice president. If I hadn't quit my two-packs-a-day habit earlier this year, I'd be chain-smoking now. So the only thing left is to stand mute against th fit-for-a-cheap-dog-kennel crowd-control fencing you see everywhere at these idiotic conventions and gnaw on weird new feelings of shock and anarchist rage as one would a rawhide chew toy.
All around me, a million cops in their absurd post-9/11 space-combat get-ups stand guard as assholes in papier-mâché puppet heads scramble around for one last moment of network face time before the coverage goes dark. Four-chinned delegates from places like Arkansas and Georgia are pouring joyously out the gates in search of bars where they can load up on Zombies and Scorpion Bowls and other "wild" drinks and extramaritally grope their turkey-necked female companions in bathroom stalls as part of the "unbelievable time" they will inevitably report to their pals back home. Only 21st-century Americans can pass through a metal detector six times in an hour and still think they're at a party. THE REST OF THE STORY
Make-Believe Maverick
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
At Fort McNair, an army base located along the Potomac River in the nation's capital, a chance reunion takes place one day between two former POWs. It's the spring of 1974, and Navy commander John Sidney McCain III has returned home from the experience in Hanoi that, according to legend, transformed him from a callow and reckless youth into a serious man of patriotism and purpose. Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam.
McCain is studying at the National War College, a prestigious graduate program he had to pull strings with the Secretary of the Navy to get into. Dramesi is enrolled, on his own merit, at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the building next door.
There's a distance between the two men that belies their shared experience in North Vietnam — call it an honor gap. Like many American POWs, McCain broke down under torture and offered a "confession" to his North Vietnamese captors. Dramesi, in contrast, attempted two daring escapes. For the second he was brutalized for a month with daily torture sessions that nearly killed him. His partner in the escape, Lt. Col. Ed Atterberry, didn't survive the mistreatment. But Dramesi never said a disloyal word, and for his heroism was awarded two Air Force Crosses, one of the service's highest distinctions. McCain would later hail him as "one of the toughest guys I've ever met." THE REST OF THE STORY
Yarmuth Issues Open Letter on Recovery Bill
Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) released this open letter to Louisville constituents following his vote for the Emergency Economic Rescue Plan, which was signed into law today.
Dear Friends,
Today, I made one of my most difficult decisions since being elected to serve Kentucky’s Third Congressional District. I was faced with two awful choices: voting for a bill that I hate or doing nothing to stop an economic meltdown that would lead to massive job loss in Louisville and throughout the country. I am angry that this is the only option we were given. However, I voted for it in order to stave off economic catastrophe—not for CEO’s on Wall Street about whom I could not care less, but for the people of our streets in Louisville.
There were significant
improvements to this version of the bill to ensure that it protected
taxpayers and was not a blank check for Wall Street. It authorizes only half
the $700 billion requested, limits CEO compensation, and eliminates golden
parachutes. The bill approved today increases accountability, provides a tax
cut to millions of middle class Americans with a patch of the alternative
minimum tax, extends the child tax credit and property tax credits, offers
tuition assistance, invests in renewable fuel, and helps small businesses by
offering FDIC insurance on deposits up to $250,000.
Still, it infuriates me that this bill is unfair to the people who played by the rules, paid their bills and taxes on time, and took out mortgages they could afford. But what would have been even more unfair is if no action had been taken today, and those same hard working people lost their jobs, houses, and savings. That is the dilemma that we faced today, and I chose to take action.
I have spoken with many Louisville business owners, and across the board, they told me if action was not taken immediately they would be forced to cut jobs-- a lot of jobs, and many felt they would have to close their doors for good. This would come on the heels of more than three-quarters of a million lost jobs in America so far this year. At Ford, Louisville’s second biggest employer, sales were down more than a third last month. Resolving the credit crunch is critical for Ford to rebound and fulfill their plans to expand and keep jobs in Louisville.
Other examples can be found with the homebuilders who are having trouble getting bonds and homeowners with no access to loans; both of which are crucial to restoring our housing market. Failure to act immediately would cause widespread foreclosures that would devalue all our homes, a credit freeze that would devastate the middle class and working families, and the loss of pensions and savings for many seniors and others about to retire.
For weeks, I have urged Congressional Leadership to devise an alternative, and for weeks they have said there was not enough time. I am dismayed by their failure to lead on this point. Yet, with all that is at stake for our community and country, I felt it would have been irresponsible not to act. As much as I hate this bill, the alternative—doing nothing—would have been far worse for working families and retirees in Louisville.
I know this decision will make a lot of people unhappy, and I don’t blame them. This unprecedented step is intended to fend off unprecedented devastation, and put simply, I could not sit back and let that happen to the community or country I love.
This is not the end of our economic turmoil. While the bill may avert immediate catastrophe, we still have a lot of work to do. I pledge to continue to put the working people of Louisville first, and to put an end to the deregulation that got us to this point of national emergency.
Sincerely,
John Yarmuth
Member of Congress
A Fool’s Paradise, By BOB HERBERT
With less than a month left until Election Day, there is still time for the presidential candidates to focus with great intensity on what should be the most important issue of this campaign. It’s not just the economy, stupid — it’s jobs.
The stock markets were rocked again on Monday, and the need to stabilize the financial system is obvious. But the U.S. economy is never going to be really healthy until the country figures out how to provide work at decent pay for all, or nearly all, of the men and women who want to work.
We’ve been living for years in a fool’s paradise atop a mountain of debt. The masters of the universe on Wall Street lost all sense of reason, no doubt. But most of us have been living above our means through the magic of easy credit, ever lower taxes, ever rising property values, stock market bubbles and the gift of denial, which we used to assure ourselves that the bills would never come due. We’ve even put our wars on a credit card.
The burden of debt for a typical middle-income family, earning about $45,000 a year, grew by a third in just the few years from 2001 to 2004, according to the Center for American Progress. The reason for this unsustainable added weight was the rising cost of such items as housing, higher education, health care and transportation at a time when wages grew only slightly or not at all.
In other words, work was not enough.
As for the debt burden of the federal government, don’t ask. (But you might want to ask your grandchildren how they plan to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
With reality now caving in on us — banks and brokerage houses falling like tenpins, a trillion dollars or so in bailout money being added to the nation’s debt burden, families by the hundreds of thousands being driven from their homes by foreclosures — it might make sense to get back to basics. And in the United States, the basic economic component of a sustainable family life is a good job.
What we haven’t paid close enough attention to for many years (a period in which we’ve been oddly obsessed with the financial lives of the rich and famous) is the fact that there haven’t been enough good paying jobs to sustain what most working Americans view as an adequate standard of living. This is a fundamental flaw in the U.S. economic system.
With the latest financial meltdown, there has been widespread outrage over the excessive compensation of top corporate executives. Where has everybody been? The rich have been running the table for the better part of the past 30 or 40 years.
Example: The after-tax income of the top 1 percent of Americans rose 228 percent from the late 1970s through 2005. The story for working families over that same stretch was one of constant struggle to just stay even. As the Pew Charitable Trusts reported last year: “The earnings of men in their 30s have remained surprisingly flat over the past four decades.”
Disaster was held at bay by the entrance of wives and mothers into the workplace, and by the embrace of colossal amounts of debt for everything from home mortgages, cars, clothing and vacations to food, college tuition and medical expenses.
Now middle-class and working families are up against the wall. With most other options exhausted, the only real way for the vast majority of Americans to continue financing a reasonable quality of life is through the proceeds from employment.
Unfortunately, we’re retreating on that front. Nearly 160,000 jobs were lost in September. More than three-quarters of a million have vanished over the past nine months.
The economy won’t be saved by bailing out Wall Street and waiting for that day that never comes when the benefits trickle down to ordinary Americans. It won’t be saved until we get serious about putting vast numbers of Americans back to work in jobs that are reasonably secure and pay a sustaining wage.
And that won’t begin to happen until we roll up our sleeves and begin the immensely hard and expensive work of rebuilding a nation that unconscionably was allowed to slip into a precipitous state of decline. We’ll end up spending trillions for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and another trillion, at least, to clean up after the madmen on Wall Street.
Now we need to find the money and the will to put Americans to work rebuilding the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure, revitalizing its public school system, creating a new dawn of energy self-sufficiency and rethinking our approach to an economy that remains tilted wildly in favor of the rich.
That’s what the presidential campaign should be about. SOURCE
Bailout Signed Into Law. Economic Recovery for Workers Stall by Mike Hall
The U.S. House reversed course today and approved a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package aimed at calming jittery nerves in the financial markets and reviving the credit markets. The vote was 263–171.
On Monday, the House narrowly defeated a similar bailout bill. The new bill, unchanged from the version passed by the Senate on Wednesday, was immediately signed by President Bush.
But action on an economic recovery package for working families remains stalled. Today’s unemployment numbers—159,000 jobs gone in September and more than 760,000 so far this year—shows the desperate need for Main Street relief.
Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:
It is essential that we provide immediate relief to families across the country who are bearing the brunt of our economic meltdown.
While the bailout may provide some immediate relief to a nose-diving stock market and troubled banking industry, it still fails to address the underlying problems at the center of the economic turmoil. Sweeney says:
The roots of our nation’s current economic crisis are decades deep. They reflect a basic elitism that has been built into our economic rules—a philosophy that underpins the Bush administration’s economic agenda and has permeated McCain’s as well for his 26 years in the Senate. These rules favor corporate profits and Wall Street investors over the working people who build our cities, teach our children and nurse our ills.
Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), says the “country’s dire economic situation”
is almost entirely the result of the Bush administration’s policy failures….The Bush administration made the crisis even worse by deregulating Wall Street.
After approving the bailout package, the House passed an extension of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits for long-term jobless workers. The bill would provide a seven-week extension for jobless workers who exhaust their benefits—13 weeks in states with high unemployment.
It is estimated that by the end of the year, some 1.1 million jobless workers will run out of both their regular UI benefits and the 13 weeks of extended benefits passed earlier this year.
But Bush has said he opposes an extension, and in the Senate, Republicans blocked a move bring the UI extension bill to a vote by unanimous consent.
According to the Bureau of National Affairs’ Daily Labor Report (subscription required), Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was behind the move to block the bill. The Senate is likely to take it up when it returns for a lame-duck session after the election.
McConnell is facing a strong election challenge from AFL-CIO endorsed candidate Bruce Lunsford.
McCain at Debate: Middle Class? What Middle Class? by Seth Michaels
Seems Sen. John McCain never heard of America’s middle class. At least that’s the impression a viewer could get from watching last night’s presidential debate.
Despite the economic house of cards falling all around us, with working families reeling from hits to their pension funds, credit lines and home mortgages, McCain didn’t use the words “middle class” even once during the first presidential debate two weeks ago or the second presidential debate last night. Not. Once.
In contrast, Sen. Barack Obama offered details of his plans to revitalize America’s working and middle class and turn around America. Obama stated firmly how aid to struggling homeowners, expanding access to health care and investing in a new energy economy would take immediate priority in an Obama presidency.
And while McCain said health care is a “responsibility,” Obama asserted that health care should be a right, not a privilege. In his closing remarks, Obama drew together these issues and summed up the most important question in this election.
The question in this election is: Are we going to pass on that same American Dream to the next generation? Over the last eight years, we’ve seen that dream diminish.
Wages and incomes have gone down. People have lost their health care or are going bankrupt because they get sick. We’ve got young people who have got the grades and the will and the drive to go to college, but they just don’t have the money.
And we can’t expect that if we do the same things that we’ve been doing over the last eight years that somehow we are going to have a different outcome. We need fundamental change. That’s what’s at stake in this election.
McCain offered a scattershot of small-scale proposals, while ignoring the bigger economic questions. He talked about the tax credit he proposes for his health care plan, but Obama pointed out that McCain’s plan also would create a new tax on workers’ employer-based health benefits.
McCain said his health care plan would roll back regulations, but Obama easily rebutted McCain’s assertion, saying deregulation would mean that insurers would have more power to deny coverage, without payment for care, and leave out those with pre-existing conditions. Obama also pointed out that McCain opposed expanding health care coverage for children by voting against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
When it came to budgetary priorities, McCain had no real answer to one of Obama’s sharpest points: That with so many challenges to address, the last thing we need to do is give $300 billion in tax cuts to big corporations and the very wealthy. As Obama pointed out, the Bush administration tried that experiment over the past eight years, and it clearly hasn’t worked.
Obama reinforced how the best way to re-invigorate the economy is by helping families and small businesses deal with the skyrocketing costs of energy and health care. Investments in these areas will help create good jobs and allow the economy to expand. Further, under Obama’s plan, 95 percent of working families would get a tax cut and most would get a bigger tax cut from Obama’s plans than McCain’s.
Obama laid out the specifics about his health care plan and how it differs from McCain’s.
One of the things that I have said from the start of this campaign is that we have a moral commitment as well as an economic imperative to do something about the health care crisis that so many families are facing.
If you’ve got health care already, and probably the majority of you do, then you can keep your plan if you are satisfied with it. You can keep your choice of doctor….If you don’t have health insurance, you’re going to be able to buy the same kind of insurance that Sen. McCain and I enjoy as federal employees. Because there’s a huge pool, we can drop the costs. And nobody will be excluded for pre-existing conditions, which is a huge problem.
Obama said the need for a new energy economy represented not only a challenge, but an opportunity.
If we create a new energy economy, we can create 5 million new jobs, easily, here in the United States.
It can be an engine that drives us into the future the same way the computer was the engine for economic growth over the last couple of decades.
Viewers in a variety of polls agreed that Obama outshone McCain as the best candidate for president. A CBS poll showed Obama winning the debate over McCain 40–26, while respondents to a CNN poll said Obama won the debate by a 54–30 margin. Polls from SurveyUSA and MediaCurves showed Obama winning 56–26 and 52–34, respectively. Clearly, Obama’s attention to the economic issues at the heart of the election is resonating with voters.
Obama again demonstrated last night that he understands the real issues facing us and that he will fight for strong, working family-friendly solutions to those problems.
With 27 days left in this campaign season, the choice is clearer than ever.
Comments:
DAILY GRILL
"President Bush made wildlife conservation an early and a high priority
of his administration." -- Vice President Dick Cheney,
10/3/08
VERSUS
"[The Bush administration has] granted 57 species endangered status, the
action in each case being prompted by a lawsuit. That's fewer than in any
other administration in history." -- Salon,
3/27/07
*********************
"Our economy continues to face serious challenges." -- President George
W. Bush,
10/04/08
VERSUS
"This economy is going to be just fine." -- Bush,
10/06/08
Quotes of the Day
Recent Senate Votes
U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act
- Vote Passed (86-13, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this bill that would allow the U.S. to trade nuclear
technology with India.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted YES
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Vote Passed
(74-25, 1 Not Voting)
The Senate approved a bill authorizing the Treasury Department to spend up
to $700 billion to purchase bad mortgage-backed securities from troubled
financial institutions.
Sen. Mitch McConnell voted YES
Sen. Jim Bunning voted NO
Recent House Votes
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - Vote Passed
(263-171)
The House agreed to a bill authorizing the Treasury Department to spend up
to $700 billion to purchase bad mortgage-backed securities from troubled
financial institutions.
Rep. Ron Lewis voted YES
Rep. John Yarmuth voted YES
HUMOR
"They had the town hall format, and that meant that the
candidates could wander around on stage. You know, I like John McCain, but
wandering around on stage there, he looked like a retiree who can't find
his Buick." --David Letterman
"At one point referred to Barack Obama as 'that
one.' And McCain later thought maybe something had gone haywire. He
apologized, he said he got confused, he thought he was at the bakery."
–David Letterman
"Are you excited about
Sarah Palin? Well, yesterday she referred to Afghanistan as our
neighboring country. Apparently, she can see bin Laden's cave from her
house." --David Letterman
"Sarah Palin,
Miss Alaska, is saying she doesn't know who Barack Obama really is.
That's interesting because she also doesn't know who Sarkozy is, Gordon
Brown, Kim Jong-Il, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Osama bin Laden." --David
Letterman
"Did you watch the debate last night? I gave up drinking a while
ago, but I started again. And I'm watching the debate last night, and I did
a shot every time John McCain said, 'My friends.' And so I am just blotto."
--David Letterman
"It got a little heated at one point during the debate. McCain talked about
experience and he said, 'We don't have time for on-the-job training.' Then
why did you pick
Sarah Palin?" --Jay Leno
"Sarah Palin was not mentioned during the debate and did not watch the
debate. I thought that was interesting. And they said, 'Well, Sarah, why?
I'm sorry,
Miss Alaska -- why didn't you watch the debate?' And she said, 'Well,
I'm busy reading every newspaper and magazine ever published.'" --David
Letterman
"Well, because of all the international focus on the election, last night's
debate was broadcast in foreign countries all across Europe, Asia, and South
America, or, as Sarah Palin calls them,
Russia." --Conan O'Brien
"And the only really new proposal last night came from John McCain. McCain
proposed buying up bad homeowner mortgages. Not to save the middle class.
You know McCain, he just likes
buying houses." --Jay Leno
"Of course, Barack Obama criticized John McCain for singing 'Bomb,
bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.' Remember that? Ironically, it's now the
number one song in Israel." --Jay Leno
"The second presidential debate is tonight. And beforehand, I don't know if
you heard this, John McCain said, 'The gloves are coming off.' That's what
he said, yeah. Yeah, then McCain said, 'but don't worry, the
diaper is staying on.'" --Conan O'Brien
"John McCain has pulled out of Michigan. I guess the surge wasn't working.
Yup, this is stunning to me. John McCain blew off Michigan. Well, I know how
they feel. Maybe you noticed that all of John McCain's problems began when
he
bailed out on this show? Were you aware of that? The road to the White
House runs right through here." --David Letterman
"In Boca Raton, Florida, yesterday, a woman who looked like Sarah Palin
caused a near riot when she walked into a diner for breakfast. But after a
minute or two, people finally realized it wasn't her when she started
answering questions." --Jay Leno
"Of course, the most controversial thing Sarah Palin said last night was she
felt the vice president should have more power. More power? Dick Cheney is
shooting people in the face and doesn't even get arrested. You cannot
get any more powerful than that." --Jay Leno
"President Bush's response to this
economic crisis was to meet with some small business owners at a soda
shop in San Antonio, Texas, this week. Well, the bad news? The small
business owners are now General Motors, General Electric, and Century 21."
--Jay Leno
ETHICS -- OIL TYCOON SAYS STEVENS'
OFFICE INTENTIONALLY TOLD HIM NOT TO CHARGE STEVENS FOR FAVORS:
Alaska oil service tycoon Bill Allen said that Sen. Ted Stevens's (R-AK)
staff told him not to charge the senator for over $250,000 worth of goods
and favors Allen gave to Stevens. "In his second day of testimony for the
prosecution in Mr. Stevens’s trial, Mr. Allen told the jury that
he was told explicitly and coarsely to ignore Mr. Stevens’s notes asking
for bills, saying that they were sent only to provide a false record to
protect the senator," the New York Times notes. Allen said he had not really
wanted to get paid for the work he did on Stevens' home because, he said, "I
wanted to help Ted. ... Because I liked him." Stevens is charged with seven
counts of filing false statements, concealing gifts from Allen and Allen's
firm, VECO. Allen "also outlined how
he or his firm solicited Stevens and his office for assistance with
government contracts and lobbied Stevens as well as Alaska state legislators
on issues including an oil pipeline." On Tuesday, Allen detailed the gifts
he gave Stevens, including
exchanging a "loaded" nearly new Land Rover for Stevens' 1964 Mustang
and $5,000; Allen said the Land Rover was worth around $44,000. In May,
Allen
pled guilty to bribery, but his sentence has been postponed to see how
helpful he is in Stevens's trial.
ENVIRONMENT -- HURRICANE IKE CAUSES HALF
A MILLION GALLONS OF OIL SPILLS: A new AP analysis shows that
Hurricane Ike "destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured
pipelines," resulting in "[a]t
least a half millions gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of
Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas." The Coast
Guard has responded to more than 3,000 pollution reports. "At times, a new
spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10
minutes." Ike's enormously destructive wreckage adds further proof that
conservatives' claims regarding the safety of offshore oil drilling are
totally false. As they pushed for expanded drilling this summer,
conservatives repeatedly
insisted that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "didn't
spill a drop" of oil. Even Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman claimed
that during Katrina and Rita, "there
was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled
in the environment."
This is a lie: Those hurricanes caused 124 offshore oil spills releasing
over 700,000 gallons of oil. The clear evidence of Ike's environmental
damage comes just days after
House progressives allowed the ban on offshore oil drilling to expire,
potentially clearing the way for hundreds of new rigs to be built -- and for
destructive new oil spills to be created.
MEDIA -- TRADITIONAL MEDIA STAND TO RECEIVE $1.44 BILLION FROM McCAIN'S TAX CUTS: Prior to and following the vice-presidential debates, several prominent conservatives on Fox News purported that the "mainstream media" has a preference for an Obama presidency. Fox pundits Bill Kristol, Kirsten Powers, and Bernard Goldberg all agreed on the "obvious fact" of the "transparent agenda" of liberal media bias. These claims fly in the face of reality. The multinational corporations that run the mainstream media -- GE (NBC), Time Warner (CNN), Walt Disney (ABC), News Corporation (FOX), and Viacom (CBS) -- stand to benefit hugely under a Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) presidency, however. The centerpiece of McCain's economic plan -- actually, the whole plan -- is large tax cuts for corporations. It would deliver $1.44 billion in tax cuts to the five largest media companies, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. These giveaways are just one result of McCain's doubling of the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, which would create the largest deficits in 25 years and drive the United States into the deepest debt since World War II. McCain and Palin have promised that the recent $700 billion bailout would not threaten these tax cuts.
According to September polling from Gallup, the percentage of Americans who
have "negative" feelings about the economy is now at
81 percent. But Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign admitted this weekend
that it is trying to distract the country from focusing on the nation's
economic woes. "We are looking for a very aggressive last 30 days," said
Greg Strimple, one of McCain's top advisers. "We are looking forward to
turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing
Mr. Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for
Americans." "If
we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose,"
admitted another aide. The issue has for months been the
number one area of concern to
voters. While McCain hopes to avoid talking about the economy -- perhaps
because of his
poor understanding of economics -- the crisis is
quickly altering the lifestyles of working and middle-class Americans
and is not going away soon. Consumers
are pulling back on their spending, for example, "all but
guaranteeing that the economic situation will
get worse before it gets better," the New York Times reported yesterday.
STIMULUS NEEDED: Last week, Congress passed a financial rescue package that failed to sufficiently address the underlying problem of creating a mechanism that ensures the restructuring of home mortgages to help homeowners. Today, the country needs a second stimulus package, as CAP has outlined, which would help stimulate the economy and stem the tide of job loss. The second stimulus package should jump-start a low-carbon economy, invest in infrastructure, expand unemployment insurance, increase energy assistance, and boost food stamp support. Contrary to McCain's plan to cut Medicaid, the stimulus package should also expand Medicaid aid to the states. "A proactive Medicaid policy would help preserve health coverage, jobs, and state financial stability -- all of which will help an economic recovery," Ettlinger and Logan noted.
ETHICS -- AIG EXECUTIVES WENT ON LUXURIOUS RETREAT ONE WEEK AFTER RECEIVING $85 BILLION BAILOUT: Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just one week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, company executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort. The executives spent nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages, among other things. During a hearing today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked, “Have you heard of anything more outrageous?" "AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don't know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?" Cummings said. Earlier this week, Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld admitted to Congress that he has taken home over $300 million since 2000, "some $60 million in cash compensation." Furthermore, "executives who feared for their bonuses in the company’s last months were told not to worry," even as Lehman plead for a federal bailout. Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) revealed that "“the board give three departing executives over $20 million in ‘special payments.'"
Think Fast
A plan circulated by George Soros to recapitalize the American banking system has received mixed reviews in the Senate. "Soros has also proposed mandating the Treasury Department to provide financing for renegotiating the terms of mortgage-backed securities. This would reduce foreclosures by helping homeowners adjust their mortgages to be more affordable."
Lobbyists are angling to play a greater role as Treasury implements the bailout and Congress debates "how best to strengthen financial market oversight," The Hill reports. Several law and lobbying firms "announced the creation of financial services task forces that they are marketing to clients and potential clients as multi-disciplinary, one-stop shops for legislative, regulatory and legal advice."
The Supreme Court opens a new term today, with one of the first orders of business hearing arguments about limiting lawsuits against tobacco companies. The "business-friendly" court has so far agreed to hear 41 cases for the 2008-2009 term, with "at least 16 of these as business cases."
A "record-breaking season for voter registration drives" ends today with Democrats adding over 800,000 voters to the rolls and Republicans losing 300,000 “in eight of the most tightly fought states in the presidential race: Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and New Hampshire."
61 percent: U.S. households that "watched at least one of the two 2008 election debates aired so far," according to Nielsen. "Homes headed by African Americans made up a larger portion of the presidential debate audience (14.0%) than the V.P. debate audience (12.3%). African American homes normally account for 12.2% of all U.S. TV households."
Speaking in Ohio yesterday, President Bush declared that "the lesson is clear: Judges matter to every American." Though Bush "steered clear of mentioning" John McCain in his speech, he made his endorsement implicitly, saying, "The selection and confirmation of good judges should be a high priority for every American."
Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld had a rough day under intense questioning from House members. However, his day was even tougher on Sunday when he was punched in the face at the gym by a man angry at the Lehman failure. Fuld "went to the gym after...Lehman was announced as going under," said CNBC contributor Vicki Ward. "He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold."
The Congressional Budget Office's top budget analyst said that the prolonged downturn in the stock market "has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans’ retirement savings in the past 15 months, a blow that could force workers to stay on the job longer than planned, rein in spending and possibly further stall an economy reliant on consumer dollars."
INTERESTING
John
McCain wants you to forget about his role in our country's last major
financial crisis and costly bailout: the savings and loan crisis of the late
'80s and early '90s.
But voters deserve to know that the failed philosophy and culture of
corruption that created the savings and loan crisis then are alive in the
current crisis -- and in John McCain's plans for our economic future.
We just released a short documentary about John McCain's role in that
financial crisis -- watch it now and share it with your friends:
http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
Voters should know the facts about John McCain's poor judgment -- judgment
that has twice placed him on the wrong side of history.
Please forward this email to everyone you know.
Thanks, David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
Buy American Mention of the Week
None this week
GOOD NEWS
"Congress will give the American Red Cross $100 million in emergency funding to replenish its disaster relief reserves, which were depleted as the charity plunged into debt to provide shelter, food and other services during a string of hurricanes this summer."
VIDEOS
McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book
CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ISSUE OF THE "FRIDAY ALERT"
NEED COMPUTER ASSISTANCE??
Democrat Activist Mike Bailey is now providing “Professional Computer Support.” He can be contacted at 502-558-4026, or mikebailey2000@usa.net.
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