- 'An End to the Southern Strategy, But No Post-Racial America' says David Love
- "A Question of Place": An essay on the power of community
- Just Equally Speaking….
- Eagles owe Philadelphia the 8 million it needs to keep libraries open
- who would like to see Verizon offer cable TV in Phila?
- Council Committee Passed the Freeze
- Carol Campbell Passes Away
- My first trip to the public library
- Fight digital exclusion
- What if half of Philadelphia didn't have roads?
The Gulf Between Words & Action: McCain & Katrina
Submitted by Sam Durso on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 3:03pm.
The Big Talk/Poor Judgement Express may have landed for its shameless photo-op with Bobby Jindal, using Gustav as a backdrop (and an excuse to 86 President and Vice President Albatross from the convention), but ace web reporter Bob Geiger has not forgotten McCain's actual record of opposing Senate bills to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, one authored by Joe Biden that offered necessary relief to children and the victims of sexual abuse at shelters, and one by Hillary Clinton and co-sponsored by Barack Obama that would have established a bi-partisan commission "to examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.. and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future."
In those Republican Majority days before the 2006 Election, both bills failed.
And Big Talk McCain toed the Party Line and voted against both.
Crises like these not only bring out the best in ordinary Americans. They also expose the utter social failure and moral bankrupted-ness of Conservative ideology.
»
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this Quick Hits
- Printer-friendly version
On an unrelated topic re: McCain & morality
Please leave Bristol Palin alone, Progressive bloggers.
As an observer who obviously has never actually been one, 17 year old women in America have a hard enough time anyway, even without crazy Right Wing parents and a mom who is suddenly under the scrutiny of international media for having been asked to serve in a position for which she is probably not qualified.
That kid has it hard enough. Wish her well and stick to the issues.
Palin & Abstinence only education
I agree that Bristol Palin should be left alone. Her Mother is another matter.
Palin backed abstinence-only education during her 2006 gubernatorial race. In an Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire, Palin gave this response to the following question:
Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?
Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.
Like much of the Republican platform, creationism, abstinence-only education, trickle down economics,tax cuts for the rich, is not based in reality and is merely wishful thinking.
Qualifications Aside
I am really astonished, given everything going on with Palin (not just her family but Troopergate, her backsliding/foresliding on the bridge to nowhere, her past support of Pat Buchanan and membership in the pro-secession Alaskan Independence party) that she agreed to be vetted and then to serve.
A lot of people take themselves out of the process early on so as not to have their family's stuff in the street. The only conclusion I can come to is that like most of the insiders in the McCain campaign, she didn't really consider herself to be a likely candidate -- after all, they didn't really even seriously vet her -- and so didn't have a chance to fully weigh what saying "yes" would mean. Or, like John Edwards, she wanted it badly enough that she was willing to risk it.
Something even bigger would have to happen for McCain to toss her overboard, but I suspect that at some point, Palin will have to decide for herself whether she wants to continue, knowing that things are only likely to get worse.
I'll echo the sentiments of most of the lib blogosphere by saying that this whole mess, including the way it came to light -- why on the world would you suddenly allow every news outlet to report scurrilous rumors by refuting them like this? -- really reflects on the poor judgment of John McCain. I think Andrew Sullivan said -- it sort of reminds you of choosing to go into a war for which, however well-intentioned you are, you have no plan to get out.
Lead balloon
As I've posted on the Washington Monthly blog, I suspect that Palin is a lead balloon. In other words, the idea of picking her was for her to be such an obviously dreadful pick that, when McCain runs out Ridge, Lieberman, or virtually anyone else, the result from the RNC will be a sigh of relief rather than a floor fight.
The fact that McSame gets to look daring by nominating a woman is only a side benefit, and one which helps to increase the lead balloon nature of the pick, given the misogynistic bent of the GOP base.
-Z