'Snuggles' McCain
mikethemadbiologist | July 19, 2008A recent poll breaks down the support for McCain and Obama among Jews by denomination:
I can't figure out why there is such a sharp difference. It's not like abortion would be a wedge issue (an aside: Orthodox Jews comprise 7-12% of the population; in this poll, they were 8% of the sample). Age can't be an issue either: Conservative Jews trend slightly older, and Orthodox slightly younger. It would be interesting to see how denomination is correlated with religious denomination and with importance of Israel's security.
Unfortunately, like every other poll where they claim to release the…
mikethemadbiologist | July 2, 2008By now you might have heard about the faux outrage at Gen. Wesley Clark's obvious statement that being a POW is not a qualification for the presidency--or a disqualification either. As Maha put it:
So a televised wingnut hollered that McCain was being swift-boated by Gen. Clark. Hello? Clark didn't make unsupportable claims that McCain is lying about his war record or that he had behaved dishonorably in the service, as the swifties did to Kerry. He's saying that being a fighter pilot and then a POW doesn't qualify someone to be President.
Dear wingnuts: This is a simple statement of fact.…
mikethemadbiologist | June 30, 2008In a very good post about elitism and Republicans, Maha asks:
John McCain's recent mangling of Barack Obama's famous "bitter" remark is also illustrative:
"We're going to go to the small towns in Pennsylvania and I'm gonna to tell them I don't agree with Senator Obama that they cling to their religion and the Constitution because they're bitter," said McCain, who might have been referring to the Second Amendment right to bear arms. "I'm gonna tell them they have faith and they have trust and support the Constitution of the United States because they have optimism and hope... That's what…
mikethemadbiologist | June 18, 2008The Washington Mandarins are clutching their pearls over this dastardly Democratic ad:
Seriously, some of us were against this war, in part, because we didn't want people we know (and, in some cases, knew) to die. We are not John McCain's (or Michael O'Hanlon's) serfs: he has to justify a long-term occupation and he hasn't done so to million of his fellow and equal citizens.
Meanwhile, insinuating that the Democratic nominee isn't entirely American, that's still ok. No fainting there.
Our chattering class is a bunch of flaming shitbags.
mikethemadbiologist | May 31, 2008By way of Lindsay, I read that David Corn relates the following about former Republican senator and McCain advisor Phil Gramm (italics mine):
No one in Washington apologizes for anything, so it's no surprise that Gramm has failed to issue any mea culpa. Post-Enron, says Greenberger, the senator even called him to say, "You're going around saying this was my fault--and it's not my fault. I didn't intend this."
This really is the end result of Peter Pan conservatism. If everything is first a matter of will, and not thinking, planning, or logistics, well then, good intentions are all that…
mikethemadbiologist | May 25, 2008This week, when McCain fired some lobbyists from his campaign, other lobbyists have been complaining how much this hurt them (italics mine):
More than a few Republican lobbyists in Washington are scratching their heads these days, asking: So this is the thanks we get?
It was a small band of loyal lobbyists who stood by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain last August when his campaign went broke and his White House aspirations seemed doomed.
They raised money for him under impossible odds and kept him company in budget hotels during his darkest days.
Now they are under…
mikethemadbiologist | May 2, 2008Magic ponies: they're not just for Iraq, but healthcare too! (from here)
Yesterday, I described how families would pay more under McCain's healthcare plan. But one point that I neglected to mention is that this is supposed to be a good thing. The logic (of a sort) is that if you end up paying more for treatment, then you will choose not to receive unnecessary treatment.
Like heart surgery. Roger Hickey explains:
...McCain wants to tax workers' health care premiums that are paid for by employers. Ask any expert, conservative or liberal, and they will tell you the result will be companies…
mikethemadbiologist | May 1, 2008I was going to discuss why I don't think the STAAR Act is particularly useful for combating antibiotic resistance, but McCain's healthcare plan is so ridiculously stupid, it requires comment.
McCain's proposal would give a five thousand dollar tax credit to every household to pay for healthcare. (It's not clear how this would lead to the claimed $3.6 trillion in savings, since we 'only' pay $2 trillion annually for healthcare). The ultimate goal is to move away from an employer-based system. That means, in plain English, McCain's ultimate goal is that you will have to pay the entire cost…
mikethemadbiologist | April 13, 2008I've never understood why so many liberals and progressives think the Democratic field is strong. Yes, the candidates aren't insane, but neither of them are particularly good on economic issues. There is nothing in either Clinton's or Obama's records or speeches that suggests that they will do anything significant to reduce income inequality, other than perhaps letting the Bush tax cuts expire (and Obama has even been waffling on that).
And keep in mind, that income inequality isn't just a matter of economically integrating more people into society. That's not some gushy, "it's not fair"…
mikethemadbiologist | April 9, 2008So, by way of Oliver Willis, I came across the John McCain Is Your New Logo site. Being the Mad Biologist, I decided to combine it with this website, and presto chango:
Have fun.
mikethemadbiologist | March 16, 2008...at least some of the time. While there has been much gnashing of teeth and wailing about the political press' recent socializing with John McCain (and appropriately so), let's not forget that this is hardly the first time the press has knelt before power instead of confronting it. Rewind to Guatemala, 1954.
In 1954, at the behest of the United Fruit Company, the CIA organized and backed the overthrow of democratically elected President Arbenz. From Peter Chapman's Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World, here's how the political press behaved (boldface mine):
[United…
mikethemadbiologist | February 21, 2008...because then it's either Huckabee or Romney. And both of those guys scare me. I have no idea if Porkgate is even a real scandal, but, if you're a Democrat, you want to run against McCain. I realize that's contrary to the conventional wisdom (which, remember, decreed that McCain's candidacy was circling around the bowl only a few months ago...).
I've listed elsewhere the reasons why I think Romney would be the toughest Republican candidate to beat, but there's something else that make Romney and Huckabee far more potent: they are likable. These guys both know how to work a room and a…
mikethemadbiologist | February 7, 2008Squooze my fascist, baby!
...there's a good chance we're both onto something:
In fact, Senator McCain has indicated that not only would he like to unleash the U.S. military on substantial portions of the rest of the world, as president, he would work to militarize American society. In a 2001 article in the Washington Monthly, after lamenting that it was "not currently politically practical to revive the draft," McCain went on to praise and argue for the expansion of the National Civilian Community Corps, a federally-administered program where volunteers "wear uniforms, work in teams, learn…