I became interested this past weekend in corporate tax rates, and I realized we are being subjected to another republican canard. My interest in the corporate tax was sparked during an exchange between John Kerry and Lindsay Graham. A video clip of their exchange went viral because Mr. Graham said McSame’s policies are an extension of Bush’s (yeah, absolutely).
Here is the clip:
Sketchy Transcript (for those with dial-up)
Stephanopoulos to Sen. Graham: are McCain's tax and healthcare policies are essentially "an extension or maybe an enhancement of the Bush policies?"
Sen. Graham answered, "Yeah, absolutely." "He wants to cut corporate tax rates; we have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world..."
Sen. Kerry interrupts: not the effective rate.
Graham nods as if he knows he is busted.
Well, what are the facts behind this debate? Join me after the jump to find out...
This is not a candidate diary, but it is another reason to elect Obama.
Just like our civil liberties that, when not held on to with vigilance, slowly slip away, the user-content control of the internet will slowly erode, and the mass telecom corps will have a new medium to funnel misinformation and banal cultural paradigms to an unsuspecting public.
Yesterday, as advertised by Sen. John Kerry her on kos, the senate communications committee held a meeting on "the Future of the Internet". Needless to say the leaps in logic by FCC Chair Kevin Martin and the sophistry of the telecoms were on full display. Join me after the jump for the details.
This will be a short diary. I am taking the day off from my normal professorial duties and writing to hang up door knob hangers that tell identified Obama voters where their polling station is located.
I have been volunteering in the heart of central PA (State College). The team has been organized, persistent, and a joy to work with. We have been on the phones, registering voters, and knocking on doors. We have been meeting the goals set for us, and doing it with smile. From the some thousand Dems I have talked to over the past 6 weeks in and around State College, I can say that I am confident that Obama will do well in Centre county (not just with students; I haven’t spoken with them).
But this is not the point of my diary (I will catalogue my experiences after the primary). Hillary came to State College yesterday. Join me for details after the jump.
I can see it now. Fox news graphics come across the screen; a red background is contrasted with a black and white cartoonish drawing of Obama peering slightly upward into the distance. Sean Hannity glances at a sheet of paper, his right finger and thumb pressed together and being wagged at an unsuspecting guest. He spews forth a set of statements that can’t be deciphered because they are masked with condescension and rage. He concludes: should Americans elect someone to the highest office of these United States who is friendly to communist ideas? "Obama a Marxist?" flashes up at the bottom of the screen.
You and I know Hannity will go there. Fox news knows no limits. But you might be asking yourself "how could they travel that road?" or "won’t everyone just see this as a smear?". Think again. I’m pretty positive that this will be the next line of attack from the far right. You should be prepared for it. Follow me after the jump to see the tortured logic of the coming right wing smear.
John McCain is an interesting cat; I mean, he is the maverick, right? Well, tie me up and call me a silly, but a close look at John McCain’s foreign policy speech shows the persona of John McCain to be nothing other than a political shell game.
Many of us know that the maverick image is a fraudulent ploy. He was against torture before he was for it. He denounced the agents of intolerance before he embraced them. But those are facts, and they have no relevance to framing of a political debate and narrative (I weep with you).
In the present political climate, an adroit presidential candidate is defined by his or her ability to stretch out towards uncharted political waters (i.e. independents) while not disenfranchising core voters in the process. A good candidate can dance a political tango with many partners, arousing those in his or her embrace, romancing their partners with sweet nothings, but never making promises that may be tantamount to infidelity to the one that brought them there.
