barn32
09-28-2008, 11:59 AM
McCain is a Gambler (http://electoral-vote.com/index.html)
Everyone knows about McCain's political gambles--picking an unknown governor as running mate, suspending his campaign to fly to Washington to try to help negotiate the bailout bill, etc. But in real life he really is a gambler who enjoys frequenting casinos. As former chairman of the Indian affairs committee in the Senate, he has had a huge impact on the laws regulating Indian gambling. He also is very close with lobbyists for the $26 billion/year gambling industry as are many of his top advisors. The NY Times has a scoop (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin) on McCain's numerous ties to the gambling industry. Part of the reason he lost the nomination in 2000 is that although few people know McCain is a lifelong gambler, evangelicals know this and oppose gambling. Even in 2008 they are still cool to him, although the choice of Sarah Palin helps a lot.
How to Bail Out Wall St. at No Cost to the Taxpayers
Thom Hartmann wrote an interesting piece on how to bail out Wall St. without costing the taxpayers a dime. The idea is to create a new government agency to manage the baoilout. The treasury would then loan it money to bail out Wall St. firms that are in trouble. The government would then institute a Securities Turnover Excise Tax (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/26) of 0.25% on stock trades with revenues going to the new agency. For long-term investors who buy stock in companies they believe in and keep it for years adding a quarter of 1% to the cost hardly matters, and even to speculators it is not huge. It is estimated that such a tax would generate at least $150 billion a year, so the $700 billion load would be paid off in 5 years. The US has had such a tax in the past and used it to finance the Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and WWII. Many other countries have a similar tax. This proposal is clearly a viable alternative to either giving Wall St. $700 billion as a freebie or even getting stock in return for the money. Wall St. managers might even prefer it to a plan that limited their future compensation. Mother Jones lists yet five more alternative bailout plans (http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9955_five_alternative_different_bailout_plans.html ).
Poll
Democracy Corps ran a 45-person focus group (http://www.democracycorps.com/focus/2008/09/first-presidential-debate-obama-makes-important-personal-and-national-security-gains/) in St. Louis. The group was heavily tilted towards the Republicans, with 33% identifying as Republicans, 27% identifying as Democrats, and the rest independents. The group as a whole voted for Bush over Kerry by a 2-to-1 margin in 2004. Nevertheless, by a 38% to 27% margin, they felt that Obama won the debate.
Everyone knows about McCain's political gambles--picking an unknown governor as running mate, suspending his campaign to fly to Washington to try to help negotiate the bailout bill, etc. But in real life he really is a gambler who enjoys frequenting casinos. As former chairman of the Indian affairs committee in the Senate, he has had a huge impact on the laws regulating Indian gambling. He also is very close with lobbyists for the $26 billion/year gambling industry as are many of his top advisors. The NY Times has a scoop (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/us/politics/28gambling-web.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin) on McCain's numerous ties to the gambling industry. Part of the reason he lost the nomination in 2000 is that although few people know McCain is a lifelong gambler, evangelicals know this and oppose gambling. Even in 2008 they are still cool to him, although the choice of Sarah Palin helps a lot.
How to Bail Out Wall St. at No Cost to the Taxpayers
Thom Hartmann wrote an interesting piece on how to bail out Wall St. without costing the taxpayers a dime. The idea is to create a new government agency to manage the baoilout. The treasury would then loan it money to bail out Wall St. firms that are in trouble. The government would then institute a Securities Turnover Excise Tax (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/26) of 0.25% on stock trades with revenues going to the new agency. For long-term investors who buy stock in companies they believe in and keep it for years adding a quarter of 1% to the cost hardly matters, and even to speculators it is not huge. It is estimated that such a tax would generate at least $150 billion a year, so the $700 billion load would be paid off in 5 years. The US has had such a tax in the past and used it to finance the Civil War, Spanish-American War, WWI and WWII. Many other countries have a similar tax. This proposal is clearly a viable alternative to either giving Wall St. $700 billion as a freebie or even getting stock in return for the money. Wall St. managers might even prefer it to a plan that limited their future compensation. Mother Jones lists yet five more alternative bailout plans (http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/09/9955_five_alternative_different_bailout_plans.html ).
Poll
Democracy Corps ran a 45-person focus group (http://www.democracycorps.com/focus/2008/09/first-presidential-debate-obama-makes-important-personal-and-national-security-gains/) in St. Louis. The group was heavily tilted towards the Republicans, with 33% identifying as Republicans, 27% identifying as Democrats, and the rest independents. The group as a whole voted for Bush over Kerry by a 2-to-1 margin in 2004. Nevertheless, by a 38% to 27% margin, they felt that Obama won the debate.