Does McCain Actually Not Understand The Most Basic Principles of Finance?

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 23, 2008 · 3:37 PM PDT

2008/09/23 · 15:37

In a GOP Primary debate in October 2007, McCain made the following statement after being asked whether "Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cut interest rates aggressively enough?"

I'm glad that . -- whenever they cut interest ratesI wish interest rates were zero. But we leave those responsibilities to the smartest people we can find, and I think that so far, he's done a good job.

With this answer, McCain indicates that he lacks the most vague concept about the economic system known as "Capitalism". The level of ignorance he shows is staggering - even if he weren't running for President during what may be either the second-worst or worst economic crisis in US history.

Poll

18 votes Show Results

Charging Interest on Loans

18 votes Vote Now!

Charging Interest on Loans

Is essential to the economic system that provides the prosperity we all enjoy

5 votes

Allows high-risk enterprises a chance to get capital, since they pay more if they succeed

1 vote

Encourages good business practice, since more conservatively-run businesses (in theory) are rewarded with lower interest rates

2 votes

Would be okay with me if I didn't owe so much on my credit card

3 votes

Is forbidden by my religion, and only practiced by Jews who will burn in hell for this and so many other reasons.

2 votes

Huh?....uh...I'm glad that . -- whenever they cut interest rates...I wish interest rates were zero...what's my name? ... how the heck should I know?

5 votes

"McCain's history of hot temper raises concerns" - McClatchy News

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 07, 2008 · 7:29 AM PDT

2008/09/07 · 07:29

The Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy)newspaper chain was the exception in the run-up to war in Iraq in 2003, printing article after article filled with the facts that the NYT and WaPo didn't think were important: like the fact that numerous intelligence experts doubted that Iraq possessed atomic or biological weapons.

Now, those pesky reporters are at it again: reporting facts. This time, it's another story that everybody knows. John McCain has serious anger problems.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...

Problems that have left even some of his supporters, those who know him personally, doubting that he has sufficient emotional stability to be president.

Poll

96 votes Show Results

John McCain's history of anger problems

96 votes Vote Now!

John McCain's history of anger problems

should raise concerns about his fitness to be president, even in those who support him politically

79 votes

are because he was a POW, and therefor heroic

1 vote

are a sign of the virile, Jack Bauer-like toughness he'll bring to the Oval Office

1 vote

F#$% YOU, YOU C@#$-SU$$ING A$$h&%e! I'LL KILLYA! YOU HEAR ME? I'LL KILLYA!

15 votes

Is Conspiring to Murder Barack Obama a Serious Offense? - WITH ACTION UPDATE

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday September 05, 2008 · 8:09 AM PDT

2008/09/05 · 08:09

A poster on Talking Points Memo reports that the FBI wanted to bring conspiracy charges against the three white supremacists who were arrested in Colorado with sniper rifles and other gear, who were apparently gearing up to attempt to murder Barack Obama.

The Rove-connected Colorado US Attorny, Troy Aid, has refused to bring such charges, stating that the mens aims were "more aspirational than operational".

Why?

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday August 31, 2008 · 8:33 PM PDT

2008/08/31 · 20:33

Even Sarah Palin is cleared of charges of serious misconduct relating to the Alaska "troopergate" scandal, the events depict her as a clumsy, impulsive chief executive who compromised a critical security position through administrative incompetence at best, and malfeasance at worst.

Her conduct - and the ongoing scandal - raises serious questions about the judgment of John McCain.

Palin fired Walt Monegan, a respected and experienced Commissioner of Public Safety - allegedly because he refused to bend procedure and fire Palin's state-trooper brother-in-law, who is locked in a divorce dispute with Palin's sister.

Palin then replaced Monagan with a man named Chuck Kopp, who was forced to step down within a week of the appointment due to an oustanding sexual harassment claim which Palin apparently failed to discover prior to her appointment of him.

Poll

53 votes Show Results

Sarah Palin

showed poor judgement in attempting to directly influence a state personnel matter that concerned her sister's bitter divorce from the man involved

showed poor judgement lying about her direct involvement in the affair until audio tapes in possession of the state police documented calls by her staff

showed poor judgement in firing the respected Alaska Commissioner of Public Saftey Walt Monegan, apparently for his refusal to improperly intervene in this affair

Showed poor judgement in appointing Chuck Kopp to replace Monegan, apparently without checking Kopp's background in the most rudimentary fashion

Showed poor judgement in all of the above, disrupting critical leadership of police in public safety in the state of which she is governor.

Hey - back off!!! McCain was a POW!!! Where's your patriotism!!!

53 votes Vote Now!

Sarah Palin

showed poor judgement in attempting to directly influence a state personnel matter that concerned her sister's bitter divorce from the man involved

0 votes

showed poor judgement lying about her direct involvement in the affair until audio tapes in possession of the state police documented calls by her staff

2 votes

showed poor judgement in firing the respected Alaska Commissioner of Public Saftey Walt Monegan, apparently for his refusal to improperly intervene in this affair

0 votes

Showed poor judgement in appointing Chuck Kopp to replace Monegan, apparently without checking Kopp's background in the most rudimentary fashion

1 vote

Showed poor judgement in all of the above, disrupting critical leadership of police in public safety in the state of which she is governor.

33 votes

Hey - back off!!! McCain was a POW!!! Where's your patriotism!!!

17 votes

McCain's Schizophrenia on Taxes and War

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday August 27, 2008 · 8:42 AM PDT

2008/08/27 · 08:42

Glenn Greenwald's current piece in Salon nails the bizarre disconnect at the heart of John McCain's plan for America:

McCain will move the US to a posture of global military confrontation.

McCain will continue and expand the Bush tax cuts, particularly for the rich.

Is he insane?

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 19, 2008 · 4:11 AM PDT

2008/08/19 · 04:11

In an outstanding diary, "My Response to the Feedback from the "Cross in the Dirt" Rickrocket describes the means by which John McCain use his POW "legend" to block scrutiny and discussion of his conduct and ideas.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

Barack Obama - and those of us who support him - have to bring a knife to the fight.

We have to destroy the "Legend of John McCain". Given the truth about the man, it shouldn't be too hard.

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 31, 2008 · 6:06 PM PDT

2008/07/31 · 18:06

Dear Mr. Milbank -

I trust that by now (evening 7/31) that you and the rest of America are painfully aware that your depiction of Mr. Obama as "presumptuous" and self-obsessed in your "Washington Sketch" article rested on a second-hand quote that appears to have been grossly inaccurate.

Link to article:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/...

Mr. Obama has stated many times, furthermore, that he is the leader of a "bottom-up" movement whose legitimacy is derived from the will of the people (like me, most of the time) he represents.

This is the construction that named witnesses to Mr. Obama's words (in contrast to your unnamed source) understood him to be making one more time.

We all make mistakes. You appear to have made one, this time.

Poll

197 votes Show Results

Dana Millbank posted a distorted misquotation of Obama in his "presumptuous" hit piece because

197 votes Vote Now!

Dana Millbank posted a distorted misquotation of Obama in his "presumptuous" hit piece because

he's looking for a job in the McCain administration

12 votes

he's angling for lunch with scooter libby

3 votes

he's trying to generate a little buzz for himself with a controverial quote, even if he has to make it up

61 votes

he's making amends for appearing on Olberman, and burnishing his "fair and balanced" credentials

27 votes

who cares? he's proved that he's a freakign moron

94 votes

Pelosi Names CIA Whoremaster to House Ethics Committe

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 24, 2008 · 3:26 PM PDT

2008/07/24 · 15:26

Who knows what bizarre combination of political forces drove Nancy Pelosi over the edge, but it isn't pretty: she's appointed Porter Goss, one of the princes of GOP governmental corruption to co-chair the House ethics committee.

Former congressman Goss was Bush's appointee to "reform" the CIA after George Tenet received the shiv in 2005. And no, the kind of "reform" he meant wasn't the Teddy Roosevelt kind. Goss brought in a team of political hacks (one of whom had to step down immediately because of a shoplifting conviction) to do to the CIA what Berto Gonzalez was doing at Justice.

Goss's star appointee, "Dusty Foggo" - a lower-teir hack promoted to Director of Operations - counted among his accomplishments running a "hospitality suite" for GOP AND Dem Congressmen in the Watergate Hotel, complete with hookers bussed in in Homeland Security limousines. Goss developed an urgent need to spend more time with his family in 2006, right before the scandal hit.

So tell us, Nancy: why is Goss surfacing in the Ethics Committee? Who's he got dirt on?+

Poll

48 votes Show Results

A guy who's hand-picked aide ran a hooker operation for US Congressmen is a poor choice to run a Congressional ethics committee because

48 votes Vote Now!

A guy who's hand-picked aide ran a hooker operation for US Congressmen is a poor choice to run a Congressional ethics committee because

well, um, people who run brothels aren't great role models

4 votes

uh... it's a betrayal of everything we hoped Democratic control of congress could achieve

25 votes

like - there's so much dirt on Goss that anybody could blackmail him

3 votes

Goss was part of a corrupt GOP/criminal scheme to subvert the CIA

4 votes

some of the girls weren't that pretty

12 votes

The New Yorker Rips the Cover off Barack Obama

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday July 13, 2008 · 6:27 PM PDT

2008/07/13 · 18:27

A diarist at the (irony deleted) Daily Kos has already noted the cover of the 7/13/08 issue of the New Yorker, which depicts Barack & Michelle Obama as terrorists fist-poundin' in the oval office.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

The story inside, "Making It" by Ryan Lizza, makes a (UPDATE) unusual, and IMO intellectually dishonest effort to link Barack Obama to John Mearsheimer (a scholar I admire, but who has been widely denounced as an "anti-semite" due to his criticism of AIPAC)

I don't know what's going on at the New Yorker, a magazine I read and admire.

Poll

240 votes Show Results

Barack Obama

240 votes Vote Now!

Barack Obama

is a friend to Israel

42 votes

isn't a friend to Israel

5 votes

is a pragmatist regarding the Middle East

50 votes

is a pragmatist regarding getting elected, and thus will eat AIPAC's salt like the rest of them

46 votes

sincerely cares about world peace and will work for a just settlement in Palestine

69 votes

it's just too soon to tell

15 votes

I just don't trust the schwartze bastard

13 votes

Remember David Kelly 7/17/2008

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday July 12, 2008 · 2:01 PM PDT

2008/07/12 · 14:01

On a July 17th 2003, an exposure-averse microbiologist bled to death from a severed artery in his wrist during a walk in the English countryside. He seemed in good spirits before he left home, and left no note.

What made Kelly's death even more unusual, is that days before he had been "outed" as the source of a controversial BBC report that Prime Minster Tony Blair's administration had "sexed up" at-best marginal evidence of Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Let's all take a moment to remember David Kelly's life and death.

Poll

36 votes Show Results

David Kelly's Death

36 votes Vote Now!

David Kelly's Death

was a tragedy for his family

2 votes

may have been the result of blackmail, or a calculated act of murder

5 votes

is just one example of pressure that was applied to silence critics in the run-up to the Iraq war

0 votes

is a good example of a more general right-wing campaign to overturn fact in political discourse

1 vote

will likely never be fully explained

5 votes

all of the above

23 votes

who cares?

0 votes

AIPAC Burned Down Darcy Burner's House (& other myths of Progressive dissension over Israel)

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 03, 2008 · 8:32 AM PDT

2008/07/03 · 08:32

The other day a Kos diarist voiced suspicions that AIPAC might have had something to do with a fire that destroyed the home Blue Dem congressional candidate Darcy Burner. The fire appears to have in fact been electrical in origin.

http://www.nwcn.com/...

What struck me was the bitterness of many of the comments on the diary, which I believe reflect deep tensions within the Kos community, and in the larger progressive world, about how we ought to feel about Israel, and Israeli influence in the US.

Poll

84 votes Show Results

US Policy toward Israel

84 votes Vote Now!

US Policy toward Israel

should be to provide Israel with unlimited military, economic, and political support. They are the only democracy in the middle east, and are surrounded by hostile enemies.

13 votes

Should be supportive of Isreal, including twisting arms of Zionist fanatics to accept that a large, secure palistinian homeland is an essential part of the future security of Israel

29 votes

should include recognition that Israel may be actively spying in the US, and using open and covert means to influence our own democratic process

15 votes

is hopelessly distorted by "identity politics" and the lack of a coherent discourse

10 votes

is difficult to talk about, given the danger of being targeted as an "anti-semite" if one criticizes Israeli policy in any way

17 votes

Death on the Somme, July 1, 1916 - and Lessons for Today

al75

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 30, 2008 · 4:13 AM PDT

2008/06/30 · 04:13

The date of July 1 doesn't resonate for Americans the way Pearl Harbor day (12/7) or Gettysburg (7/3) does - but people remember the first day of the Somme in Britain, even now, 92 years later.

On that catastrophic day, England's proud volunteer army marched to its utter destruction: about 20,000 men died the first day, due to bad intelligence, bad planning, and rigid, non-responsive military command. Military mismanagement was concealed from the public for years, and the blunders on the Somme were repeated on a larger scale, under the same leadership, a year later.

The result was a catastrophe from which Britain has arguably yet to recover.

While our problems in Iraq are very different, there are important points in common: bad intelligence, a poorly-thought out mission, suppression of accurate journalism and public dissent, and deification of marginally-competent generals while a political and arms-manufacturing elite cashes in.

The fate of Britain and the British empire should be a cautionary tale for us today.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

The principle lesson of WWI for our time is

28 votes Vote Now!

The principle lesson of WWI for our time is

War is really really bad, and no wars shoudl ever be fought

4 votes

the ruling class will always be happy to send members of the working class to die in combat

18 votes

war debt has dire political and economic consequences

3 votes

a free press is vital for democracy

3 votes

civilian leadership must be retained in times of war

0 votes

if you want people to make cool movies about your war, get better helmets and other gear, like Tom Hanks had in Saving Private Ryan

0 votes

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Does McCain Actually Not Understand The Most Basic Principles of Finance?

"McCain's history of hot temper raises concerns" - McClatchy News

Is Conspiring to Murder Barack Obama a Serious Offense? - WITH ACTION UPDATE

Palin's Capacity for Leadership Threatened by Alaska "Trooper" Scandal

McCain's Schizophrenia on Taxes and War

On the "Cross in the Dirt", and on Bringing a Knife to the Fight

An Open Letter to Dana Millbank

Pelosi Names CIA Whoremaster to House Ethics Committe

The New Yorker Rips the Cover off Barack Obama

Remember David Kelly 7/17/2008

AIPAC Burned Down Darcy Burner's House (& other myths of Progressive dissension over Israel)

Death on the Somme, July 1, 1916 - and Lessons for Today