Link: Jobless Rate Jumps to 5-Year High of 6.1 Percent | Associated Press/Yahoo! Finance
The nation's unemployment rate zoomed to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August as employers slashed 84,000 jobs, dramatic proof of the mounting damage a deeply troubled economy is inflicting on workers and businesses alike.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the increasing toll the housing, credit and financial crises are taking on the economy.
Link: U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures, Delinquencies Reach Highs | Bloomberg.com
Link: U.S. Troops in Iraq Largely Staying Put; No New Forces for Afghanistan in '08 | Wired.com
Earthside Comments: This is not that hard. More of the same? Or a change in direction for this beleaguered nation?
Last night John McCain gave a speech accepting the radical Republican nomination for President. As much as he may try now to distance himself from George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney, the simple truth is that he adopted them as his beloved leaders for almost eight years. By 2004, McCain the so-called 'maverick' was a story long told, long ago.
McCain has hugged Bush tightly and the evidence is in his actions if not in his passionless language. He may say otherwise, but McCain has become a blind adherent to the "deficits don't matter" economic philosophy. He insists that all of the Bush tax cuts will be made permanent, if he has his way. McCain believes that military budgets are sacrosanct -- there is, therefore, not enough discretionary money left to make much more than a dent in the annual federal deficits nor the ten trillion dollar federal government debt. By foreclosing the option of making the super-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, by promising more tax cuts and by putting defense cuts off limits, McCain has left himself without any tools to slow the growth of federal debt. That means McCain is a confirmed, dedicated Bushite -- more of the same that we cannot afford.
John McCain, like Bush, is a staunch friend and defender of oligarchical corporatism that has perverted the free enterprise system -- his proposals on energy are a prime example. "Drill! Drill! Drill!" is code for diverting more profit and power to the world's wealthiest transnational corporations. He has opposed tax credits for alternative energy resources, while proposing $4 billion in tax give-aways to big oil comapnies. After eight years of oil men Bush/Cheney running things, that is more of the same that we cannot afford.
McCain, like Bush, favors more corporate international trading schemes. Consequently, no matter what he says now, we could only expect more outsourcing of American jobs overseas. McCain's immigration proposals, backed by Bush just last year, also demonstrate that laborers in this nation have no friend in McCain. The results of the economic policies advocated by McCain can be seen at the very top of this post. No, we cannot afford more of the same Bush-McCain attitude towards the American working and middle class.
Sadly, John McCain has become a victim of his own heroism. Almost every message or proposal in his speech last night ended up being a war story. It is understandable that a traumatic event like his imprisonment by the North Vietnamese forty years ago would shape and influence a person for the rest of their lives. However, the presidency is not therapy nor a forum for reverie. Republicans and Bushites have already manipulated the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, into perversions of patriotism for their own political gain -- that has cost this country greatly. The appeal to militarism, tough-guy talk, 'us-against-the -world' foreign policy that Bush/Cheney favor is exactly the same behavior that McCain promises. Even after the elapse of so much time, John McCain cannot seem to walk out of that POW camp, he is still a captive of his past and it has apparently made him reliant on the use of threats and force in foreign policy -- at a time when most Americans and the world thirsts for diplomacy and negotiation. After eight years of Bush/Cheney belligerence and lies, we cannot afford the McCain version of the same.
The McCain selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has been heavily discussed here on this web site. That alone is a disqualifier for John McCain's unbridled presidential ambitions. After eight years of Bush political pandering to the intolerant, extremist Christian right-wing, we cannot afford more of the same.
We are certain, therefore, about this: McCain-Palin are not change, they are more of the same. So, we have to consider alternatives. At Earthside, we have been intensely critical of the Dimocrat Party establishment; they have been weak, accommodating and Bush-enabling. Dimocrats by their acceptance of the current political structure of big money campaign financing and their antipathy towards pluralism do not represent the kind of dramatic, 'democratizing' change we really need in our Republic.
Nevertheless, we do see in Barack Obama the inklings of a movement in the direction we think is progress. We are encouraged that he was able to defeat the ossified, reactionary Clinton faction of his party. Obama's life story is pure Americana -- without the benefit of being born to wealth or military legacy, he has by his own effort, intelligence and commitment emerged as a refreshing new leader. Obama speaks unequivocally in positive and inspirational terms, attributes not to be belittle after eight years of cynicism and fearmongering. We've been in politics long enough, and know enough history, to understand that the promises of politicians (even like Obama) will not be fully realized and that there will be great disappointments even if he is elected with a supportive Congress. However, the nation is in such dire need of a change in attitude and governmental philosophy that Barack Obama is a preferred and desirable alternative Bush-Cheney-McCain-Palin.
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