McCain's Anti-Environment Record

Despite his posture in the debate, McCain has an abysmal record on voting for renewable energy. Here's the truth from the League of Conservation Voters:

McCain has rejected even the weakest renewable energy programs. Sen. McCain voted against giving increased funding to solar and renewable energy programs in 1994 and 1999.³ In 2005, he voted against a national renewable electricity standard (RES) that would have required utilities to get 10 percent of their electricity from alternative energy.⁴ Last year, he missed all of the renewable electricity votes.⁵ Sen. McCain supports giving billions of dollars in subsidies to the nuclear industry while actively opposing similar support for wind and solar energy.⁶ Renewable energy must be an essential part of any global warming plan, yet Sen. McCain has stood in the way of such progress throughout his career.⁷

You can read the full details (with footnotes) here.

Additionally, his overall record on environmental voting is pitiful:

McCain LCV lifetime voting score - 24%
Obama LCV lifetime voting score - 86%

And in 2007 (most recent year available)?

McCain LCV 2007 voting score - 0%
Obama LCV 2007 voting score - 67%

You can find the full details on that here.

Is is possible to have a worse environmental voting score than McCain did last year? I don't think the scale goes into negative numbers.

Don't believe McCain's lies. He's no friend of the environment.

McCain vs. Everybody

Watching the debate at the moment, I want Barack to ask McCain this question, "John, is there anybody in the world you don't want to fight?"

Just now, McCain is posturing to fight both Iran and Russia. And, of course, he doesn't want to get out of Iraq or Afghanistan. Of course, there's no mention of how to pay for any of this adventureism, nor where we're going to get the troops for it, as our military is already stretched near the breaking point.

I think our President should not only stick up for America, but he also needs to pick our fights carefully. I see no signs of such care in McCain.

Obama On the Economic Crisis

Barack's press conference today (longer than many of Bush's) where he talks about the current economic crisis, the tack he thinks we should take on it, and how that relates to postponing Friday's debate (or not).



It's worth hearing his rational (as usual) approach to the country's problems.

Do we want calm and reasoned reactions like this, or a series of "Stop everything!" crisis points and knee-jerk reactions -- which is what McCain seems to be offering.

And here's what Barack sent out in a letter on the crisis yesterday. I'm leaving in the "ads," because some of you might want to sign aboard at this point:

The era of greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington has created a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression.

Congress and the President are debating a bailout of our financial institutions with a price tag of $700 billion or more in taxpayer dollars. We cannot underestimate our responsibility in taking such an enormous step.

Whatever shape our recovery plan takes, it must be guided by core principles of fairness, balance, and responsibility to one another.

By clicking here, you are signing on to support an economic recovery plan based on the following:

• No Golden Parachutes -- Taxpayer dollars should not be used to reward the irresponsible Wall Street executives who helmed this disaster.

• Main Street, Not Just Wall Street -- Any bailout plan must include a payback strategy for taxpayers who are footing the bill and aid to innocent homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

• Bipartisan Oversight -- The staggering amount of taxpayer money involved demands a bipartisan board to ensure accountability and oversight.

Show your support and encourage your friends and family to join you:

http://my.barackobama.com/ourplan

The failed economic policies and the same corrupt culture that led us into this mess will not help get us out of it. We need to get to work immediately on reforming the broken government -- and the broken politics -- that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place.

And we have to understand that a recovery package is just the beginning. We have a plan that will guarantee our long-term prosperity -- including tax cuts for 95 percent of families, an economic stimulus package that creates millions of new jobs and leads us towards energy independence, and health care that is affordable to every American.

It won't be easy. The kind of change we're looking for never is.

But if we work together and stand by these principles, we can get through this crisis and emerge a stronger nation.

Thank you,

Barack

Burlington For Obama Grand Opening

I'm Voting Republican Because . . .

This is hilarious! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU

Speaking of hilarious, does anyone know if Paul Ryan is still pushing Ryan's Reactionary Roadmap after the events of this past week? Could even the Paul Pandering Privateer himself still be ideologically blind enough to think handing Social Security and Medicare over to the fast hands on Wall Street would be anything but a complete disaster? Could he still promote this worn out idea to his constituents with a straight face?

Voter Bias

An interesting article Kay dug up about why people vote irrationally:

http://www.salon.com/env/mind_reader/2008/09/22/voter_choice/index.html

I'm all for putting our candidates through challenges that test their thinking before we elect them.

How Ignorant Do You Have To Be?

Just how ignorant do you have to be to vote Republican this time around? After 81 long months of lockstep GOPsupport for the Bu$hite regime and it's extreme Un-American criminality, immorality, secrecy, deceit, and bloodshed not to mention incompetence and ideological myopia, people all around the world know (and the American people should) that under this brand leadership you just can't trust America anymore.

-You can't trust America on International Law
-You can't trust America on use of Military Force
-You can't trust America on Foreign Policy
-You can't trust America on Human Rights
-You can't trust America on Environmental Issues
-You can't trust America on world Leadership

And the final straw?-You can't even trust America on Financial Management

If after all this we're collectively ignorant enough to elect another member of this partynow, the rest of the world may very well shake their heads, wash their hands and turn their backs on us to suffer the consequences of our folly. And they would be more than justified in doing so.

Alas It's Constution Day

To day is the 221st anniversary of the signing of our Constitution of the United States of America. Flags, which represent the Constitution should be flying at half-mast in mourning. For eight years of treacherous rule by the GOPsters have left our founding document and our principles that it embodies in tatters. Without that document and those principles, I don't know what it is, but it sure as hell ain't America!

My Proposed New Obama Ad

*This proposed ad was written by Steve Sullivan. See note at end.*

Hello, I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message.

Republican John McCain and his running mate are lying to you about me and my positions.

Here’s the truth:

My tax plan will mean lower taxes for every American earning less than $250,000 a year—that’s 95% of all Americans. And the cost for my plan will be covered by rolling back the tax rate for the people earning more than $2 million a year, back to the same tax rate we had under Bill Clinton. And, if you remember, people all across the US—even the very rich—did pretty well under Bill Clinton.

That simple roll-back pays for tax cuts for everyone else: working families who are struggling to make ends meet. If you’re earning less than $250,000, you’ll get a $500 rebate—$1000 if you’re married or have children. And I will completely eliminate income taxes for senior citizens earning less than $50,000.

Don’t take my word for all this, check the report by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

John McCain and the Republicans don’t want you to know that. He’s trying to muddy the waters, and you have to ask yourself, “Why?”

Maybe it’s because, for the past seven years, John McCain has been part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. By his own admission, he’s voted with George W. Bush over 90% of the time. That’s not change—that’s more of the same.

My name is Barack Obama, and I stand for Change You Can Believe In: lower taxes and a government that cares about working people.

Please vote for me on November 4^th.

*This proposed add was written by Steve Sullivan, based on position papers by Barack Obama. I believe all of the statements in it to be correct representations of Barack’s positions—though I cannot personally speak for the candidate.

I'm John McCain, and I approved these LIES.

Here's a short film that calls McCain out for many of his lying campaign ads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk

Our current president lied us into the Iraq war. Do we need more liars in the White House?

I don't think so.

If you agree, and like this film, please pass it along to your friends and family.

And if anyone has a link to McCain saying -- as I and others remember -- that he wouldn't use negative ads or Swift-Boating this campaign, I'd love to add that to this post.

ADDENDUM: Okay, here's two links (Thanks, Matt!) to McCain promising not to do what he's now doing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2BA_9QJRrE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZf05ijVFtc&feature=related

And here's a juxtaposition between those promises and what he's actually done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rUTXfuz6S0&feature=related

As I said at the top, "I'm John McCain, and I approved these lies."

GOP vs. America

Just some random links about this week's Republican National Convention -- which tend to prove that what was said at the convention bears no resemblance to what is scientifically known as "reality" or morally known as "the truth."

First up, John Stewart of the Daily Show on Palin playing the Gender Card. (Click on the link to see the video.)

As a follow-up, Steven Colbert points out that Alaska has Mt. McKinley, which is the highest point in America and the part of our country closest to outer space. Therefore (following GOP logic) Sarah Palin has outer-space policy experience.

Next, an AP analysis of the Palin Speech on Huffington Post. (Click link to read.)

A few days back, Fresh Air was talking rationally and calmly about Sarah Palin's positions on things from Abstinence Education to Global Warming, here's a link for that. Today, they did a similar analysis of John McCain. To know these people is to be able to better counter her spin.

Here's the definitive article about the candidates' plans on health care -- something we should all care about. You can read the NE Journal of Medicine assessment here, or listen to the recent talk about it on Fresh Air, but the gist is that McCain wants to tax the health benefits you get from your employer, deregulate the health care industry, give people a tax rebate (less than the cost of the coverage), have people buy their own coverage individually, and let the market take care of things.

And in case you've forgotten what kind of antidote Obama offers for all this greed, hypocrisy, bullying, and irrationality, here's a link to Obama's Acceptance Speech.

Now that the Obama office in Burlington is open, there's plenty of opportunities to help fight the good fight. See you there! (Check the top of the page for the address.)