I was just reading eve's diary about a woman she called in West Virginia.  The woman has an illness that will be terminal and is immobile and her husband helps as best he can but loses hours everyday commuting to his job.  Wonderful caring eve did her best to help from long distance by finding and providing this family with phone numbers of people who may be able to help.

Reading the diary and some of the comments is heartbreaking as everyone, regardless of their station in life or political persuasion, deserves better.  I couldn't help but compare their circumstances with those of my parents in Canada and it's shameful that American families can't expect the same treatment.  More of their story after the jump.

So Senator Obama did two very good interviews with Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News and Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room on CNN. I thought he hit a total home run with Williams--he was focused, funny, substantive, and his usual self. But I would argue that his interview on CNN didn't go as well, and I want to point out one area, specifically, that I thought he really missed an opportunity--on taxes and capital gains. But first, the background of what McCain said about Obama's plan.

On Thursday, John McCain's wife Cindy declared she would never release her tax returns.  Unfortunately, the McCains are bucking the tide of public opinion regarding her income and href="00 million fortune.  The American people by lopsided margins overwhelmingly believe presidential candidates should disclose their tax returns.  And as they showed four years ago in the imbroglio over Theresa Heinz Kerry, the leading lights of the Republican Party and the conservative movement used to agree.

Cindy McCain is on record as saying she won't release her tax returns.  Not now.  Not in the general election.  Not if she is the first lady.

Link

My "Economic Stimulus Payment" is scheduled to arrive from the IRS in the next few days.  I'm sending the entire thing to Human Rights Watch.

I could use the money.  I work two full-time jobs to help care for myself (almost $1,000 a month in medical bills, just 15 weeks out of a very successful heart surgery!) and my granddaughter (whose dad is in the US Navy and whose mom was wounded in the Persian Gulf more than two years ago).  But this is blood money, and I'm not going to keep it.

hey all go to john cusack at my space to learn more about war inc.
i never been on this site before..it's preety  great!

THAT WAS FUN.  Just got done spending $3 trillion.  Try it yourself – it's a lot harder
than you might think.  Honestly, it would have been a whole lot easier just to follow the President's example and blow it all on one illegal occupation of Iraq.

$3 trillion is the projected cost of the Iraq War according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes.  That's a whole lot of zeroes, but what does it really amount to?  How many homes would it buy for Americans who've fallen victim to the subprime meltdown?  How many debts would it pay off for developing nations?  As it turns out, one whole hell of a lot of all of those things combined.

This diary is a follow-on of my diary from Wednesday

In it, I made the case that it is time to change the story from delegates to GE issues, and to include issues that the 24-hr 'squawk-machine' is likely to feature in full 'spin-cycle mode'.  I also think that it is time to turn up the volume and point out the SCLMs double-standard when it comes to Republicans vs. Democrats and John McCain in particular.  My point, over the jump.

When I arrived at JFK November of 1999, I was in some respects the classical immigrant. I was certainly tired. I was quite poor. And after a six hour flight, I was most definitely a huddled mass yearning to breathe free. And I spent a time in this country acting as many immigrants do - working hard, keeping my head down, and not making any trouble. Even when you are perfectly legal, married to a citizen, speak the language, and have a decent job, it pays not to make waves around here.

In the time since then I have done much to assimilate myself into the American culture. I have visited all 50 states. I am addicted to baseball, both as a spectator and a player. I have become something of a historian of Brooklyn, my adopted home. But I have remained disengaged from the political process, even as the government of this country has become still more corrupt and self serving than I could have imagined. It's time I made an effort. And this post is my starting point.

Garrison Keillor in his daily  Writer's Almanac gave us this today:

On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs for unemployed Americans during the Great Depression. More than 8.5 million people were paid an average monthly salary of $41.57 to build roads, paint murals, and record American folklore. Republicans called the WPA "We Pick Apples" or "We Piddle Around." When people asked why the government would give jobs to artists, Harry Hopkins, the man in charge of the program, said, "Hell! They've got to eat just like other people." Citizens were grateful for the work. A poem sent to Roosevelt read, "I THINK THAT WE SHALL NEVER SEE / A PRESIDENT LIKE UNTO THEE ... POEMS ARE MADE BY FOOLS LIKE ME, / BUT GOD, I THINK, MADE FRANKLIN D."

 It is an interesting coincidence given some of the discussion after Carmin T's diary RAISING the gas tax would SAVE you money.     Let us look below to see how this program worked.

It was a big day today on Wall Street. A lot of stuff happened, including what was unthinkable just a few months ago -- oil broke a price record. No one know how high it will go, but some insiders expect it to reach $150 per barrel in the foreseeable future.

Oil hits $120 a barrel milestone

The price of a barrel of oil has risen above $120 for the first time, driven by concerns about the situations in Nigeria and northern Iraq.

US light sweet crude rose to a record of $120.36 a barrel in morning trading in New York before falling back to $119.84, up $3.52 on the day.

Another factor pushing up the oil price has been the US dollar's weakness as investors opt to back commodities.

An article published yesterday notes an important distinction between the two Democratic candidates:  Sen. Barack Obama favors broad reforms, for example reducing the payroll tax on the middle class, whereas Clinton favors "narrowly focused  programs," such as the gas tax holiday.

Obama proposes to pay for his proposal through several measures to eliminate fundamental inequities in the tax system; for example, cracking down on corporate tax avoidance, a systemic problem.  Clinton has proposed to fund the gas tax holiday with a windfall profits tax on a single industry - oil companies. But, Clinton's tax break would likely create new problems, experts argue, creating a need for more fixes. Thus, the decision between the proposals offered by Obama and Clinton comes down to whether voters want broad reforms or limited fixes, i.e., a patch, patch, patch approach.

Attention!  Attention!  This offer (details to be described after the flop) only applies to the dwindling number of people who still call themselves Republican or are thinking of voting for a 3rd Bush Term by pulling a lever for John McCain.

I am offering every Republican in America a chance to receive $600 from yours truly.  The amount can be paid by check or cash.   The details are below.

This is a recent post to my personal blog and I believe is appropriate to cross post at Daily Kos. Seems to be a progressive issue to me. On the the post.

--

Quite a bit of the subject of prostitution in the news in recent months and again in recent days with the news of the apparent suicide of the so called D.C. Madam. She had recently been convicted and was awaiting sentencing.

Just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. I know many will disagree and I respect that but from my point of view she was only brokering a deal between two consenting adults with little if any effect on anyone else. I see no crime in that.

If you ask anyone that considers themselves a member of the Grand Ol' Party what their party's principles are--what is the base for which your party exists--you will probably hear an explanation of the Conservative Principles of Ronald Reagan that believes in low taxes, small government, free market solutions, a strong military, and a strict-constructionist school of thought to the Constitution. In my opinion these principles--on the surface and in theory--are actually very good ideas for national success (other than the Constitution crap). You will have a tough time finding someone that says they enjoy the government taking away their hard-earned dollars, and then doubling the deed by wasteful government spending in programs that are too large and extremely inefficient. You will also have to look long and hard for someone that doesn't think a vital part to our national security is having a military that can defend our country from the other guys. And anyone that owns a business is probably against the government dictating how to operate or completely taken over a certain industry. So why exactly have these "Conservative Principles" failed so miserably in the past few years?

John McCain's presidential campaign has apparently found help to battle its extreme case of Bush separation anxiety.  Desperate to distance the Republican nominee from the most unpopular president in modern American history, the McCain camp is closely coordinating with the White House to create the facade of separation between John McCain and George W. Bush.

Please read the "rest of the Story".

Like many Americans this week, I received my IRS rebate via direct deposit today for $1,200.00.  I guess I should be grateful, but I really don't see how this passes for sound economic policy.  But then again, we're talking about the Bush administration.  So what should I do with my new found riches?

Clinton's decision to endorse the gas tax holiday is an unmitigated disaster in the making.  The opportunity for gleeful Republicans to stem Democratic gains in the house and Senate and to improve GOP chances in November.

This is actually one of the reasons I have opposed Clinton since the beginning.  I was never a big fan of Bill to begin with.  In addition to the scandals, Bill had a tendency to support issues like NAFTA that garnered more support among Republicans than Democrats, and effectively undermined Democrats in 1992.  Their tendency to triangulate hurts Dems.  Personal ambition always superseded loyalty to party.