The McConomy in McCrisis

Harry Reid (D-NV) may be the most boring Senator in the history of our bicameral legislature, but when you're as right as he is in this clip you don't have to be interesting.

Monday's McCain said our economy is strong. Tuesday, McCain said our economy is broken. Wednesday's McCain said it's because of lack of regulation.

The thing that Reid left out is that on Monday McCain claimed to be "fundamentally anti-regulation" then said that we needed more regulation just hours later. Proving once again that not only do I know more about the economy than the Republican Presidential candidate, but that that same candidate is fundamentally a panderer. He will do anything and say anything, including contradicting his own statements, his own record, in order to get people to like him.

The other thing that Reid neglected to mention, and that I fear too many people are neglecting to mention here is that John McCain's economic adviser (the one that was fired after calling us a "bunch of whiners", the man that wrote McCain's financial plans and policies) Phil Graham is one of, if not the person most responsible for the lack of regulation that McCain says is to blame for this economic disaster.

It's Reaganomics people. Pure and simple. Put all of the money into the hands of the big businesses, let them do whatever they want (make loans to people they know can't afford those loans; tack on $5,000 in extra closing costs every time a house gets sold; give tax incentives to American businesses who want to "save money" by having their products made elsewhere) and in turn over-regulate the regular people who want to simply live their lives. A business can ban people from forming or joining a union, but unions can't solicit new members. What?!

Oh, I forgot, Reagan=good, Unions=bad. Well America, how are the Reagan/Bush/Bush economic policies working for you? Our (under reported because the Unemployment agencies don't count all of the people who are out of work) employment rate, nationally has topped 6%! Before Reagan our national debt was about 2 trillion dollars. Now it's 10!!! (Reagan trippled it to 6 trillion, and Bush's dirty oil war has added another 4 trillion.) The policies of the last 25 years have set a precedent in American minds that we don't have to be responsible with our money because there's always going to be some other world power who will buy our debt. For individuals, there's always more credit cards, there's always another mortgage. Except that when the financial institutions (and countries) that own our debt go belly up and we lose our life savings and our homes, our jobs, AND CAN'T FORM A UNION to help fix things -- what then, oh mighty spectre of the so-called Best President Ever? What then President Bush? What then President McCain?

Don't you fucking get it?! The policies of the 80s, borrow and spend voodoo economics has landed you exactly where you are right now. The reason you don't have a cent of retirement money (except social security, whose "trustfund" Reagan may have created, but subsequently robbed; you know that "entitlement program" that the Bush/McCain policy seeks to turn into another welfare program so they can more easily kill it?) is because of the economic policies of the last 25 years. You even voted for these policies, America, by voting for people who told you that taxes were bad, and that it's okay to run up a 10 trillion dollar credit card because, hey, the taxes of my generation will pay for it.

This shit isn't going to fly anymore. Industry needs regulation. NEEDS it. People need less, industry needs more. Seriously. I can't smoke a bowl in the privacy of my own childless home, but Wal*Mart can sell unsafe toys to your children? Really? That seems kind of backward! That seems kind of corporatist! These policies aren't new either! I can't declare bankruptcy because of medical bills, but AIG can get a loan from the American people to bail their asses out?! Meanwhile their profits go straight into the hands of their corporate executives and shareholders? We can socialize the losses of the banking industry but we can't have socialized healthcare?!

WAKE UP AMERICA!

John McCain wants you to believe that the reason we are perched on economic collapse is because of "greed", but he won't tell you that he and his closest friends have been instrumental in deregulating industry to the point where a financial institution that had been in place since the fucking Civil War was able to hang itself with its own unbridled greed. Regulations are placed on industry because greedy people lack foresight. This shit has all happened before, and regulations were put in place to keep it from happening again -- then removed or edged around by John McCain and Phil Graham.

And John McCain is trying to scare you with "Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes". He may, but ONLY if you make over $250,000 a year, and if you make that much, at least you'll still be able to keep your shirt and your rice because Barack Obama's economic policies will NOT continue the devastation of the last couple of days, and that $250,000 you earn will still be worth something.

Oh Johnny [McCain]...

"We will stand on your side and fight for you," he says.

Which side of my neck are you going to stand on, John?

"We will get the me-first-country-second crowd out of Washington," he says.

That must be why he's running such a poorly-thought-out campaign.

"I've stood up to corruption in Washington."

Which is why he's stood up to George W. Bush the last 8 years and supported demands for the Bush administration to be investigated for -- oh, wait, what? He hasn't?

"[Sarah Palin] knows who she works for," he says.

Yeah, the oil companies and the Alaska Independence Party (not to be confused with the Independent party) who want to suceed from the Union.

Kudos for CodePink for getting in two nights in a row and disrupting both speeches. I can't take this Republican Party... why is it they are the biggest war hawks when Eisenhower was the biggest anti-war advocate who, in his farewell address when he left office went down a list of things that our tax dollars could be spent on instead of the military-industrial complex (a term Eisenhower coined, by the way).

"We believe that everyone deserves the right to reach their god-given potential," he says.

*Unless you're poor and expect a decent education in a public school, expect to be able to take care of your sick kids/parents/spouse without losing your job. Clearly reaching our god-given potential does not hinge on having health care, education, roads, or not being in the middle of three wars.

McCain says that he's going to lower taxes and Obama will raise them (if you make more than $250,000 a year); lower goverment spending (by following the same plan as the Bush Administration) by ending failed programs (except the Iraq War and abstinence only education); it seems to me like McCain is reading from the wrong play book... that is, he's saying he's going to do all of the things it says in the Democratic National Party Platform rather than the Republican one.

"Equal access to a [good] education has been gained," he says.

No. It hasn't. And, "help[ing] bad teachers find another line of work" isn't the way to help the education system. Giving bad teachers better training will fix it.

"We're gonna stop sending 7 billion dollars a month to countries that don't like us..."

By continuing the Iraq War?

"We've dealt a serious blow to Al Qaeda in the last few years," not, "and they'll strike again if they can," be afraid, be very afraid. "Iran..." we already know what he's going to say.

"My administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability," he says.

Our standards are pretty low. You gonna limbo under the moon, too?

Watch him play the POW card now. How utterly honorable.